A Little Demonstration
by AnonymousTwit
Summary: When a small, cheap hero school starts promoting themselves as U.A.'s rival due to their close proximity, Nezu decides to humor them for a day. Now, after causing nothing but trouble for the heroics students, these sad excuses for future heroes will have to survive a fate worse than death: All out war with the Beast of Class 1-A. No pairings. Cussing is censored 'cause I'm a wuss.
1. The Build Up

**Yo, what up, my dudes! It me! :D**

**So, this was originally just a one shot, but, as I should expect at this point, it got really, really long, so I'm splitting it into a two shot instead. And it will STAY a two shot. ****This will also be WAY more light hearted than my last fic. Just saying. **

**A couple things before you continue. First off, this is OC writing practice for me, so there will be quite a few of them. Most of them are meant to be despicable, but still. Second is that there is a character who is mentioned to have touched another character inappropriately at one point. I promise it isn't graphic _at all_ and you don't even see it happen, but if that still makes you uncomfortable, then please proceed with caution. :)**

**Also, for those of you who have read my other three MHA stories currently uploaded at this time, I referenced all of them at least once in this chapter. I'm curious to see if you can spot them all! X)**

**That should be all. Without further ado, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

That morning had been the usual f***ing disaster that is his class trying to relearn how to function like intelligible human life for the day, but at this point, he'd long since accepted his fate of being associated with them.

It was six in the morning when Bakugou returned from his morning jog and found Four Eyes and Deku nearly passed out on the couches. Apparently, the class had decided to have a mass studying session for a test they were having today and had drank so much coffee that even Aizawa had been concerned for their health. These two idiots had somehow been dragged into it after being strong armed into helping Ponytail with tutoring. Bakugou had no idea how long it lasted, but he couldn't be more grateful that he'd gotten out of it. An early bedtime has its perks, people. It did upset him that his competition for the highest grade would have the disadvantage of being bone tired, but ultimately, that was their own fault.

By six thirty, he'd made himself breakfast and Deku and Four Eyes were forcing themselves to exist at this apparently ungodly hour. Ponytail and Half n' Half showed up around this time, Ponytail tripping over her own feet and bumping into walls. Half n' Half, alternatively, seemed wide awake, alert to his surroundings despite normally being as clueless as a toddler on laughing gas in a snake pit and helping lead the class vice rep over to the couches with the other 'geniuses'.

Icyhot sighed. "Well, at least someone else got enough sleep. You even seem to be in a good mood today."

Bakugou snorted. "Yeah, well, I ain't a f***ing idiot, unlike the rest of these dips***s, apparently."

"I'd like to think they would prefer terms such as 'easily swayed' or 'self-sacrificing'."

"It's stupid is what it is. Not my fault if they fall behind and I take the top spot in academics."

"You don't seem as thrilled about that as one might think."

"Half n' Half, you are _literally_ the last person I should have to explain myself to."

Shockingly, (pun not intended, f*** you) the next person to show up in the common room was Sparky, literally almost tripping out of the elevator and falling flat on his face. While Icyhot went to check on Deku after he fell asleep sitting up and somehow managed to end up on the floor, Sparky waddled over to the kitchen counter and planted his face onto the smooth surface.

Bakugou had to admit that he was impressed, watching as Dunce Face's arm lazily lifted into the air and inched towards his plate. With a cheshire grin, Bakugou nudged a pepper into his reach and watched in sadistic amusement as the offering was taken without question and the idiot shoved it into his mouth without even looking at it.

The reaction was near instantaneous, Sparky shooting up, wide awake, with a scream that had Deku, Four Eyes, and Ponytail at their feet in sloppy fighting stances instantly. With impressive speeds, Sparky ran to the fridge as if his a** was on fire, ripped it open and yanked a full gallon of milk out. Bakugou decided that warning everyone about germs wasn't worth the trouble as the moron straight up chugged it, but he made a mental note for himself to avoid using that particular jug at all costs unless he wanted to catch a case of the stupid. It could be infectious, after all.

Breathing harshly, Dunce Face turned to glare at him with a look of betrayal. "I trusted you, man! How could you!?"

"Hey, you're awake now, aren't you?" Bakugou responded, tone bored and completely straight-faced.

Drooly could only give him the most deadpan look he was capable of. "...I really hate you sometimes."

"Feeling's mutual."

And that was the fairly tolerable beginning to what would end up being one of the most infuriating couple of days in Bakugou's entire f***ing life.

* * *

It was irritating, how used to Four Eye's lecturing and Raccoon Eyes's and Sparky's screaming he'd become. Earlobes's tapping and humming was as commonplace as Weird Hair manhandling him as some sort of greeting and somehow, someway that he wasn't even remotely interested in knowing, even Deku's mumbling had just become background noise to an average weekday morning in the classroom. Huffing in acceptance to the usual barrage of sound, he leaned back in his chair and let out a content sigh.

Funny thing, life was. Last year, he might have killed someone by now.

"You seem like you're in a good mood today." Earlobes suddenly commented, twirling one jack with her finger while the other one was still plugged into her phone.

Bakugou rolled his eyes. "I don't have 'good moods'. I just haven't found anything to be p***ed about yet."

Jirou snorted loudly, coughing lightly into her hand like an unhygienic barbarian before returning to her playlist. Somewhere behind him, Tape Face's wheezing sounded like a dying horse. He'd whirl around and tell him to mind his own f***ing business, but Aizawa was already lumbering into the classroom like the personification of death before even Four Eyes could yell at everyone to shut up and sit down.

"Good morning..." he drawled, though it sounded more akin to zombie moans. The class hesitantly responded, sharing glances of concern as their homeroom teacher walked up to his podium and promptly face planted onto it.

Well then.

"Sensei!" Four Eyes shouted, chopping at the air wildly. "Are you alright!? Do you not feel well?!"

Without lifting his head, Aizawa raised his hand to silence him, the classroom going deathly quiet. He straightened himself out a moment later, looking at all of them with bloodshot eyes and a frown fit for someone on sentenced for life. "This evening through tomorrow, we will be expecting guests on campus."

Bakugou already hated it. He didn't even need Aizawa to continue as he went on. "They are students from a nearby heroics school that Nezu personally invited to observe classes and tour U.A. High. Please, don't cause too much trouble."

Bakugou did not miss the fact that the underground hero was glaring directly at him when he said that.

"Sensei!" Four Eyes's hand was back in the air. "If I may ask, which school will be visiting?"

Aizawa took a deep breath. "It's a school that..._a former colleague of mine_ teaches at, just down the road from here. If I remember correctly, it's called the Musutafu Conservatory for Heroics, or MCH for short. So pretentious..."

"Um, pardon me..." Ponytail asked hesitantly. "But are you sure that's the name? I've never heard of this institution before."

"Trust me," Aizawa growled, more so to himself. "There's a reason for that."

"I've heard of it." Uraraka thought out loud. "It's apparently super cheap to live around there, and pretty easy to get into, so I'd been thinking about it for a while before my parents convinced me to test into U.A."

"Uraraka, I just might fail you for ever even thinking about it." Pink Cheeks let out a pathetic _'eep!'_ as Aizawa continued. "Now then, next period will be your exam, so I do hope that you're all prepared, and for today's lesson, we will be focusing on the logistics and benefits of positive treatment towards civilians, victims, and colleagues while on the field, so pay attention, please."

Aizawa was glaring at him again. Bakugou didn't particularly appreciate it.

* * *

"So, check this out."

Ashido slid her lunch tray aside and shoved her phone screen into the nearest person's face, that person being Sero. He jerked back to avoid being smashed into as Ashido kept talking, blissfully unaware that she'd almost beamed the guy in the face. "Musutafu Conservatory for Heroics. For the best and beyond."

"What is that, their alma mater?" Bakugou scoffed. "F***ing lame."

Kaminari snerked. "Yeah, I'm gonna have to side with Blasty on that one. It sounds like that one retail store."

"Bed, Bath, and Beyond?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

Kirishima spat his drink all over the table and Ashido managed to jab her phone into Sero's chin. She pulled it back, still not noticing Sero rubbing his chin painfully as she scrolled through the school's website. "Let's see, small student population, ninety five percent job acceptance rate, list of pro hero faculty and staff, this place actually seems pretty good. I wonder why Aizawa-sensei was so bitter about it."

"Let me see that." Bakugou demanded, plucking her phone out of her hands. He took one look through the statistics and snorted. "Yeah right. Small student population due to acceptance rate or obscurity and poor ratings, which don't seem to be listed here? And are those jobs as pro heroes or sidekicks who never made the cut? Those are paying jobs. Or how about other kinds of work like secretaries or PR managers, or jobs outside the heroics industry altogether? It's too f***ing vague. And I've never even heard of half of these f***ers listed in the faculty, and the ones that I _do_ recognize aren't even in the top one hundred heroes. This place looks sketchy as f***."

"Hear that?" Kaminari said to the group, gesturing towards him. "This is why this guy's the one with our squad's collective brain cell."

"What?"

"Don't worry about it."

"I wanna see!" Kirishima exclaimed, reaching for Ashido's phone. Bakugou allowed the redhead to yank it from his hands as he peered at the screen with interest.

Sero hummed, mostly to himself. "If this place is so sketch, I wonder why the principal invited them to U.A."

"Could be anything, really." Bakugou reasoned, taking a sip of his drink and stabbing at Ashido's searching hand with his utensil, earning a screech. "If there's one word that describes Nezu, it's unpredictable."

"Valid point." Sero thought aloud. "A grudge, maybe? He can be pretty spiteful."

"How the h*** should I know?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"You know what I'd like to know?" Kaminari suddenly said. "My grade on that test."

Sero and Ashido let out twin groans of agony while Bakugou just rolled his eyes. "Oh, get over it. It wasn't that hard."

"Easy for you to say!" Ashido whined. "If it wasn't that hard, then why didn't you let us borrow our brain cell!?"

"What does that even mean!?"

"Don't worry about it!" Kaminari yelled with his mouth full like a disgusting two year old.

"Uh, guys..." Kirishima suddenly interjected, his brows furrowed in confusion. "I think I might have figured out what's going on."

The group fell silent, all eyes on the hardening quirk user. There really was no other way to describe the look on his face outside of pure confusion, head tilted as if trying to solve an elaborate puzzle. Bakugou reached for the phone, Kirishima pointing to where he was looking as the device was handed off.

Bakugou's eyes zeroed in on it almost instantly. "You've got to be f***ing kidding me."

_**Top rival of U.A.! Fighting for the number one spot! No greater school in Musutafu!**_

"These guys honestly think they're on par with _us_?" Bakugou questioned, his tone a mixture of irritation and disbelief as the other three all gaped. "Is Shiketsu out of the running all of a sudden? Those guys might be really, really weird, but if there's anything that Camie and Baldy have shown me, it's that they're competent. These guys are a joke."

"Awwwww," Ashido cooed. "He's complimenting his friends~."

"_**SHUT**__-_"

Sero loudly cleared his throat. "I hate to break up this lovely banter, but we've got more pressing matters at hand, like what in the world we're in for here."

"I'm honestly worried about them." Kirishima admitted, concern etching his face. "I think they're biting off more than they can chew. What if another villain attack happens while they're here?"

"Hey, these f***ers are the ones who signed up to be heroes. If s*** hits the fan and they can't handle it, that's not our problem."

"But..."

"Hey man, Bakugou's right." Kaminari spoke up, no longer stuffing his face and talking like a normal human being. "Times are changing. With how things are now, they should technically be ready for the provisional license exams by this point. You know, sidekick level at least."

Sero smirked. "Then again, you know who here _didn't_ get their license their first try?"

Bakugou nearly AP shot him from across the table. "Okay, first of all, f*** you. Second, it wasn't because of my practical ability that I didn't qualify. Those two a**hats should have been able to get out just fine on their own!"

"And there's the problem. You're getting better at it, but rescue's still really important in heroics. It's kind of the point even. 'To win is to save and to save is to win.' You literally said something along those lines yourself, dude. I was there, and it was bada**."

Bakugou sunk down against the table, the lower half of his face hidden behind his arms as he glared daggers at the glorified tape dispenser with beady red eyes and gave a low growl. Sero only smiled back.

"Back to the topic at hand!" Ashido suddenly yelled, making the three idiots jump. "The way I see it, we won't know what to expect until they get here, so for now, we just have to wait and see. Oh, and Sero, when did you bruise your chin?"

Sero gave her the most withering glare that he'd ever conjured up in his time at U.A. High. Bakugou may or may not have snickered at that.

* * *

Now, Bakugou has hated people before. It's in his nature to butt heads with people, pick fights and make enemies. His entire being is a perpetual explosion, moving outward, constant energy, motion, fire and heat and anger, anger, anger. He may be good at a lot of things, but people are not one of them. So yes, he's hated plenty of people in the past, whether he got over it or not.

But these guys? He'd rather call himself besties with Deku and then go out for a drink with Shigaraki Tomura. At least they're not complete failures in their respective chosen roles in society.

The MCH pr***s arrived just before dinner in Lunch Rush's cafeteria in one of the most pompous and flashy looking buses that any of them had ever seen, though the only one at all impressed was Twinkle Toes. Bakugou felt like he had a pretty good idea where the school's budget went. The bus steps even had a red f***ing carpet roll out as soon as it opened.

The first person to step out was a woman. Average height, dark brown, almost black hair down to her shoulders and slick glasses. She almost looked like a stereotypical movie nurse. Her hero costume even resembled a nurse outfit, though unlike what Midnight might go with, there wasn't anything suggestive about it.

What was suggestive was the look in her eyes. Bakugou already hated her.

Ten teens lined up behind her, clean uniforms without a single wrinkle on them, looking as if they owned the entirety of Japan. Bakugou had the sudden urge to punch the guy in front with the muted red hair in the face, but at least he could say that over the last several months of his life, he's learned a thing or two about restraint.

Some of them had some pretty fascinating traits, such as one girl with squid tentacles for hair and a super tall, burly guy with the most impressive sideburns that he'd ever seen, paired with giant canine fangs that made him look like a wild animal. One girl, with a dead expression that put Earlobes's resting b**** face to shame, literally looked like she was made of plastic.

Bakugou stood off to the side, his classmates and the other hero class practically climbing over each other to get a good look at the new arrivals. Ashido was literally climbing on top of Uniform to get a better view. He could already hear Deku scribbling theories in a notebook and muttering to himself, as if he'd become so used to the sound that his brain would automatically zone in on it if the nerd was nearby.

The nurse lady sauntered up to Aizawa and Vlad King with the confidence of someone under the influence and threw her hand forward. "It's been a long time, Eraserhead!"

"Blessedly so." he responded deadpan, staring at her outstretched hand as if it were a snake threatening to bite him.

She scowled, but her sickeningly sweet smile was back on her face instantly. "I see you haven't changed much."

"Same with you. When was the last time you even saw a villain?"

Nurse Dumba** laughed at that, a high pitch cackle that reminded him of a fairytale witch. "And when's the last time you even saw a woman?"

Some of Bakugou's classmates gave each other weird, awkward glances. Bakugou himself wasn't even sure was she was trying to insinuate with that. Vlad King had been about to say something, but Aizawa just rolled his eyes. "Dinner's in the cafeteria tonight. I'm sure you can find it on your own. You will be staying in an assigned spare dormitory that the principal has prepared for you. If you have any questions, don't bother asking me."

Dumba** snorted as the three of them moved away from the group of students. "So rude."

"Well," Kaminari muttered next to him. "I can safely say that I'm not a fan of hers."

"For once, we agree on something, Sparky." Bakugou responded under his breath, earning a snerk from the electric blonde.

While Nurse Dumba**, Aizawa, and Vlad King stood off somewhere else, though she must have still been talking s*** from the nasty look on Earlobes's face, the other heroics students began to mingle with the MCH kids. There was one girl who stayed far back, short, straight blonde hair and green eyes a little too similar to Deku's for his personal liking, sweating profusely and looking about ready to run for it. She stood close to the bus, trying to avoid any possible eye contact.

A shiver ran through her body, likely feeling his gaze on her, and her eyes meet his. Bakugou wasn't quite sure why, likely something to do with her quirk, but it was like someone had shone a flashlight in his face, forcing him to squint at the sudden onslaught of light assaulting his vision. He barely noticed the girl going sickeningly pale, terror painting her face as she, after a long moment, spun around and bolted behind the bus. Huh. Weird.

"So _this_ is the competition?" he overheard, and as if he were a deity being mocked by a mere mortal man, his steely gaze whipped over towards that d*** muted redhead, the kid's own eyes traveling across the sea of future heroes that Bakugou would bet his quirk could individually kick the guy's a**. The other eight students were like sheep being herded off a cliff, all looking on with expressions spanning between acceptance and straight up admiration. It was disgusting.

"Greetings, students of Musutafu Conservatory for Heroics!" Four Eyes suddenly exclaimed, making some of the 1-B kids jump in surprise. "I am Iida Tenya, class representative of U.A.'s heroics class 1-A! It is a pleasure to meet you all!"

Muted Redhead snorted. "Of course it is."

Kirishima must have noticed Bakugou's eye twitching, because his hand was tightly gripping his shoulder a moment later.

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" the boy behind Muted said, sporting one of the more clean cut, plainest appearances he's ever seen in his entire f***ing life. He easily outstretched his hand, Four Eyes hesitantly accepting it. "Call me Rikiya, Rikiya Ayamu, proud second rank of MCH's class 1-A, and this here, this is Shintani Suiichi, our class representative and the top student in both our class and all of MCH in academics, hero training, and just about everything else you can think of!"

Bakugou is officially naming this guy Beta. He doesn't give a f***. This boy's legacy has now been immortalized as Beta.

He was pretty sure he had a good idea of how the hierarchy of this class worked now, all of them standing in order of rank with the girl whose still hiding somewhere behind the bus being rank ten. From there, it went dude with bad hair day and knives for fingers, A guy with bird wings for arms, the plastic girl, some chick whose never even heard of conditioner in her life, a second Twinkle Toes, as if one wasn't enough, the tall, hairy sideburns guy, and the squid hair chick. Then is was Beta and Muted Redhead. Real fascinating squad here. Bakugou has never cared any less about a group of people in his entire life, and that's saying something coming from him.

Honestly, now that he thinks about it, there's a lot of new records going on here that he's 'ever seen in his entire life'. Points for effort, he supposes.

"Um," Ponytail spoke up. "And I imagine you are the vice representative, Rikiya?"

"Why, yes!" Beta exclaimed happily, as if he'd never experienced acknowledgment before. He took her hand in both of his with a smile. "It's very nice to meet you, miss!"

"Yaoyorozu."

"Yaoyorozu." Beta beamed. "That's such a beautiful name."

"Back in line, VP." Muted Redhead suddenly demanded. "You're being creepy."

"Ah, my bad." Beta practically stumbled his way behind him. The other U.A. heroics students were all looking at each other awkwardly, not knowing what to do with these strange visitors. Slowly but surely, students began to filter towards the cafeteria, trying to become better acquainted with the group of know-it-all jerks.

It became pretty clear pretty quickly that there was no getting along with these f***s, watching in annoyance as this S***tani guy made scathing remarks not only about the people around him, but U.A. and his own classmates. Beta stayed close to his side as his obvious b****, barely saying a word other than to add onto whatever his jacka** of a class representative had to say. Sideburns didn't say much either, only growling at whoever tried to greet him, and he was pretty sure he was planning class 1-B's beast guy's murder with the way he was looking at him. The chick who ran out of conditioner, he'll call her String Hair, was fast rising up his s*** list with how she was talking to Ashido, the doll chick literally just repeating everything she said.

_Man_, these guys were annoying.

"Now, to be fair to this Shintani guy," he heard Kaminari say to his left. "You're not all that nice to us either, Blast."

"At least I can put my money where my d*** mouth is." Bakugou retorted. "I earned my right to talk s***."

Kaminari nearly choked. "Whatever you say, man."

"You doubting me, a**hole?"

"Whaaaaaat, I would never~."

He immediately beamed the dunce in the back of the head hard enough to nearly send him to the ground laughing.

* * *

Apparently, the MCH s***s were meeting with their witch of a homeroom teacher for a hot second before raiding the cafeteria, so the heroics students of U.A. were being given a moment's reprieve before all h*** broke loose.

"So..." Round Face started awkwardly. "Great first impression."

Earlobes rolled her eyes. "I'm honestly just impressed that Bakugou didn't start anything."

"I know. I'm really disappointed with myself."

Sero laughed. "Explodo-kills over here's been on a role with the zingers today."

Light chuckling could be heard from all corners of the group. Finding tables, classes 1-A and 1-B had naturally split back into their respective classes as they all simultaneously prepared for the incoming fallout.

"What's with those guys anyway?" Grapestain complained. "It's like they think they're better than us on principle, even though we have way more merit!"

"I never thought I'd say this, but Mineta's got a point." Asui thought aloud. "They're acting like we're inferior to them, which I'd normally just ignore and move on from, but it's kind of annoying when it's clear that they haven't earned that confidence."

"I kind of feel bad for them." Kirishima said sincerely. "They're almost delusional. I'd hate it if they got themselves hurt because of it."

Ashido pulled a pair of sunglasses out of thin air. "Tone it down with the sunshine, Kiri. We're going blind over here."

"What?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Oi!" Someone suddenly called over, class 1-A peering over to see the gray Kirishima wannabe waving at them. "You talking about all this MCH bulls***?"

Bakugou snorted. "Yeah, it's bulls***, alright."

"Oh, what's this?!" Droopy Eyes annoying voice rang out. "Do my ears deceive me, or is class 1-A _not_ up to the challenge!?"

"Okay, look, case and point," Bakugou said, completely ignoring him. "As much of an annoying loud mouth as Droopy Eyes over there can be, at least he's competent enough of a fighter and hero to take our class, people with on field, _real life_ experience, head on and keep up."

Whatever Droopy's next words were going to be, he tripped over them so violently that he choked. Bakugou didn't give a f*** that he'd indirectly complimented him. Flooring him was one of the best things to happen today and he's pretty sure that there are at least a few people in that room who agree with him.

"I understand everyone's frustration." Big Hands admitted, leaning against the back of her seat. "I can already tell that this is gonna be rough."

"May God have mercy on our souls..." Vines muttered, hands clasped together as if she were praying.

"It will truly be a mad banquet of darkness." Bird Brain said, mostly to himself.

"It is extremely unfortunate that there are people like this in the hero world and that we must deal with it," Four Eyes exclaimed. "But retaliating will only cause us and U.A. more trouble than it's worth! Thus, we must control our emotions and avoid conflict!"

Bakugou appreciated how all of class 1-B turned to stare at Droopy Eyes, earning a squawk of indignation. What he did not appreciate was all of his own class staring at _him_.

"Oh my!" Mushroom Girl suddenly giggled. "Are these the beginnings of a _truce_ that I'm hearing?"

Nobody reacted to the strangled _What!_ that Droopy let out.

"Truce?" Ponytail questioned. "But we're already allies..."

Big Lips laid a hand on her shoulder. "Just roll with it."

"It's a 'them' thing." Earlobes added.

Obnoxious cackling could be heard in the distance, above the roaring chatter of the other students in the cafeteria for dinner, as their collective doom approached them. Bakugou was pretty sure that all forty of them were cringing simultaneously.

"I'm gonna be completely, one hundred percent honest with you guys." Kaminari announced, fingers together like he was deactivating Pink Cheeks's quirk and looking as if he was about to tell his deepest, darkest secret. "I _really_ don't want to have dinner with these people. It just won't taste as good."

"I'll gladly make dessert for everybody when we get back to the dorms." Big Lips offered. "I just got a hold of a new Carrot Cake recipe that I've been meaning to try."

"Yes, please!" Uniform squealed, Tail holding her down from leaping out of her chair in excitement while everyone else showed different levels of anticipation.

Droopy Eyes's irritating voice was suddenly grating against Bakugou's ears once again. "Listen to this banter! Can you believe them? They can't even handle something so mundane as human interaction! But isn't that so important in hero work? Teamwork with other heroes? So pretentious! You all are no better than they are!"

Droopy's laughter cut through the air as the entirety of class 1-A all looked at each other with expressions ranging from boredom to irritation. For a moment, Bakugou thought about just walking over and clocking the loud mouth as hard as he could to shut him up, but this wasn't the most ideal situation for violence, as much as he'd prefer it. Between this and the incoming s***storm of wannabe hero brats, he didn't know how much more he could take before he exploded, figuratively _and_ literally.

So f*** it. He'd take a page out of his father's book for a change. Sometimes, the best option was to avoid the conflict altogether.

Slamming his hand against the table and standing up so suddenly that nearly everyone jumped, Bakugou accepted his fate, the lesser of two evil. "So you all could handle this? Is that what you're saying, Droopy Eyes?"

Class 1-B was already at the edge of their seats, ready to jump both of them should a fight break out. Droopy Eyes smiled that stupid smile. "Well, duh. You got a problem with that, you barbarian?"

Bakugou fought to take on a neutral face, the crease in his eyebrows disappearing. It was as if lightning had stuck the rival class, a chill collectively running through their spines. "Fantastic."

He immediately turned, freeing them of his steely gaze, and gestured his classmates towards the exit. "F*** this s***. Everybody, to the dorms. Dinner's on me."

The reaction was instantaneous. He was pretty sure that half of his class was screeching like mad banshees, but he couldn't tell over the ringing in his ears. His own squad was gone almost instantly, screaming and hollering like even crazier people than they already were, with a few others, particularly Round Face and Uniform, following close behind. The rest of them slipped out after them silently. Bakugou chose to keep it to himself, but the way Half n' Half's eyes widened for a moment before he calmly stood from his chair and speed walked after the others was one of the funniest things he's ever seen.

It was only rivaled by the way the entirety of class 1-B was giving Droopy Eyes the dirtiest looks they could muster. "Way to go, Monoma." the Kirishima wannabe grumbled.

"Yeah." Lizard Girl agreed. "You kinda walked us into that one."

"Wow," Big Hands mused aloud. "By this reaction, you'd think the guy is Japanese Gordon Ramsey or something."

Ponytail laughed nervously. "Um, well, yeah. He kind of is."

As even she made her exit, the table where all of class 1-A was left almost completely empty, leaving Deku milling around looking incredibly lost. Bakugou snarled. "Deku, what the h*** are you doing?"

Deku deflated, wringing his hands. "I just... Is it fair? To leave them like this? Who knows. Maybe these people aren't as bad as we're making them out to be."

To Deku's credit, he didn't break under Bakugou's glare, looking him directly in the eyes as he waited for a response. Class 1-B had grown oddly silent.

"Deku, I will make katsudon if you turn around and walk out that d*** door right now."

"_Oh, well would you look at the time!_" Deku suddenly exclaimed. "_I must have left my soap in the washer-,_ er-,_ sink, _I mean..._ I gotta go._"

And with that, the nerd ran off, Pink Cheeks apparently waiting for him at the door like how he thinks a good friend should. He thought so, anyway. He wasn't exactly sure about it. Friendship isn't his area of expertise.

Droopy Eyes started screeching like a madman. "Are you running away, you cowards!? I see how it is!"

Bakugou gave him a dangerous grin. "Choke on a d*** and die, Droopy Eyes. We're outta here."

"Oh, you're leaving so soon?"

It was like all warmth left the room, the chatter dying down all around them. Even Bakugou could feel the tension suddenly skyrocket around them before he even turned to face the owner of the voice. He could hear footsteps as his own stance tensed, as if he were one threat preparing to take on another. Class 1-B was eerily quiet, even Droopy Eyes going silent in anticipation.

From the corner of his eye, he could see S***tani making his appearance, his entourage not far behind him. In all honesty, Bakugou almost felt bad for these people, grouping around such an unimportant a**hole when they could be attempting to make something out of themselves. He himself may not have been any better once upon a time, but at least he could say with sincerity that he was talented.

That, and entering high school, he started to learn this really neat thing called 'maturity'. Fascinating stuff.

With barely a glance behind him, Bakugou scoffed. "Yeah, suddenly started to smell like s*** in here and we didn't feel like dealing with it."

He could practically feel the way everyone in Muted's posse tensed up like they were watching two world powers stare each other down. Bakugou was curious as to how this comparison even added up in their minds.

"Well, aren't you full of yourself." Muted spoke with disdain, as if he weren't a giant a** hypocrite for spitting that out. "Should've expected nothing less from one of U.A.'s most infamous students."

Oh. _Oh_. So this guy actually _knows who he is_ and is _still_ trying to antagonize him. As much as Bakugou would love to just explode this jacka** into the next century, he didn't feel like wasting energy on an idiot. That, and U.A. has already dealt with enough public criticism on his behalf as it was and he absolutely refuses to give these guys any fair ammunition. Also, from his understanding, murder is not a good thing to see on a hero's resume. At least, that's what Four Eyes has been trying to explain to him.

"Okay, listen closely, whatever-the-f***-your-name-is, 'cause I'm only saying this once."

Muted's face twisted into indignation. "It's Shintani, you a**hat."

"I've been in a good mood today, so I'm gonna let you off on a warning this time," he stressed, turning to fully face him and slowly, casually strolling up to Muted. The varying levels of terror on every face in that moment nearly put a smile on his face. "Either clean up your act or f*** off. My classmates are _stupidly_ forgiving, but I'll only go for so long before I snap, and trust me, _nobody_ wants that, _least of all you_."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Unless you're an idiot, that should be pretty obvious."

"Hey..." Big Hands tried, but she seemed conflicted about getting between them.

"Shintani," Beta spoke up. "Maybe now's not the time."

Bakugou absentmindedly noticed how hot it suddenly was, steam lightly rolling off of Muted's clenched fists.

"Kacchan..." he suddenly heard, spinning around to see the nerd standing behind him, Pink Cheeks peering over his shoulder.

"Why are you still here!?" he shouted on reflex, apparently loud enough to make everyone else jump. At this rate, they'll hit the ceiling eventually.

"Because we're hungry!" Pink Cheeks shot back, having the audacity to look at _him_ impatiently.

Bakugou groaned, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." A sideways glare at S***tani. "That's more worth my time than this clown, anyway."

Following after the two losers, Bakugou pointedly ignored the way Muted almost motherf***ing _lunged_ at him, Beta and Squid Girl easily holding him in place. It amazed him that these guys were still alive with how up their own a**es they seemed to be. He knows first hand what can happen in the real world. They aren't ready to get knocked around by reality the way he was. They wouldn't survive the same lessons in humility that he was taught.

Should he get the opportunity, knocking them down a few pegs would be doing them a favor.

* * *

"I don't think you guys realize how lucky you are."

Kendou honestly hadn't been expecting those words from Tetsutetsu, looking over the small group of hero students as they all collectively got up to get their trays at Lunch Rush's call. His brows were furrowed, an uncharacteristically dark, solemn look in his eyes. "You just provoked death itself and walked away intact."

The shy blonde girl squeaked, hiding behind the harpy student. Said harpy had an almost fascinated look in his eyes. "You make him sound like the final boss..."

"This ain't a game, Nerd Bird." the girl with silver hair like strings retorted.

"Nerd Biiiird..." her dead eyed sister(?) drawled.

Shintani was giving a questioning, unimpressed look as Kendou let out a sigh. "Okay Tetsu, that might be a bit of an over exaggeration."

"Tell that to Tokage."

Tokage let out a loud groan, bending her back with a satisfying crack. "I still get sore just thinking about that fight. _Never again_, if I can help it. _Please_."

Reactions from MCH varied. There were a couple of them who seemed to be starting to understand what they were saying, nervous about making enemies with such a feared figure. However, most of them still seemed unconvinced.

Well, their funeral, she supposed. Though now that she thinks about it, she may not know him all that well, but at least she's pretty confident that _actual_ murder won't take place.

She hopes so, anyway.

Monoma sighed dramatically. "Okay, look, I absolutely detest that I'm about to say this, and seriously, I might throw up my dinner later tonight after this, but there's a reason he's often referred to as 'the beast of class 1-A' on campus, or to everyone else, 'that one crazy kid from U.A.'. You see, most heroics students would give you a fair chance in a mock fight, I would think, but spend three minutes in the ring with that _lunatic_ and we'd be spending three days trying to scrub your remains off the walls."

"Wow," Honenuki said in surprise. "That just might be the nicest thing you've said about anyone from 1-A."

"I know. I already feel queasy."

"Can we all agree that the guy's also unkillable?" Tokage announced. "I'd bet money that if any of us in this room went through even half the stuff that he's survived, we wouldn't even exist anymore."

"Sounds like a fun guy!" The girl with tentacle hair exclaimed. "I'd certainly like to get to _know_ him, if you know what I mean. He's pretty hot."

The guy with knife fingers lifted his hands dangerously. "Nope. I'm gonna stop you right there, Mizukami. I know where you're going with that, so _stop_."

Kendou felt a shiver run down her spine. Monoma actually dry heaved.

"Y'all are asking for it!" Tokage yelled somewhere in the background, throwing her hands in the air.

"Oh, come on." Shintani sighed. "You guys have to be over exaggerating. You make it sound like he's actually dangerous. Like, life-threateningly dangerous."

Tetsutetsu snorted. "Well, he actually did almost kill someone once. Some jacka** with an ability suppressing quirk tried to take out one of his friends and kidnap another and he beamed him over the back of the head with a broken pipe. The guy now has a speech impediment."

"Oh?" Kendou started incredulously. "And where'd you hear that rumor?"

Tetsutetsu looked her dead in the eye. "Kirishima."

Oh. Well, s***.

And that's around where the discussion began to die down, the MCH kids completely uninterested in their warning and Monoma near catatonic from talking about Bakugou Katsuki in an even remotely positive light. Kendou could only say that she tried as she hunkered down for what was bound to be an annoying dinner. She normally wasn't one to feed into the apparent rivalry against class 1-A, but in that moment, she was so unbelievably jealous.

Maybe they should figure out if any of them in 1-B can cook for future reference.

* * *

He felt like it should be more concerning that Deku's hysteric screaming was so cathartic for him.

"Are you _actually_ trying to kill me!?" Deku shrieked, dodging Bakugou's outstretched hand by a centimeter and watching as the impending explosion threw them both back and nearly took out the closest wall in the training area.

"Isn't it f***ing obvious, nerd!?" he shot back, going in for another attack. Don't let Deku even have the chance to think. From the wild dying whale noises and stupid questions being thrown around, he assumed he was doing a good job of that.

They'd been sparring for a solid ten minutes by now, ignoring Four Eyes's warning and practically chasing each other out of the building and out into the night air just fifteen minutes after the best dinner that any of those idiots have had since starting high school. He'd gladly bet money on that.

"Yeah, get him, Deku!" Round Face yelled from the sidelines, bruised, bleeding and practically being suffocated by all the gauze that Four Eyes wrapped her in after attempting to join in for a three way battle. She predictably took a pretty hefty beating, but she didn't last as long as he'd been hoping. He'd have to spar with her more often. Keep her on her toes.

"Shut up, Pink Cheeks!" he shouted back, only to take a kick to the jaw because he's an idiot and _not paying attention_.

"I told you I wasn't going to be your punching bag anymore!" Deku proclaimed loudly, going in for a roundhouse kick.

The problem was that he seemed to have a confidence boost at a bad time, doing what he might personally do when blinded by rage and leaping right at him. He quickly recovered from the last hit, using his explosions to reorient himself and grab a hold of Deku's swinging leg. Deku yelped, eyes going wide as he seemed to realize his mistake and braced for impact. It was easy to launch him through the air, watching as the freckled idiot smashed through some workout padding and into the opposite wall with a resounding crash.

"Hey!" Four Eyes's irritating voice suddenly cut through the air. "The deal was no serious damage! You're going to bring the entire building down at this rate!"

"He's got a point, dude!" Kirishima called out. Bakugou had forgotten he was there as well. Why wasn't Kiri sparring with them again? "Maybe that's enough for today!"

With an annoyed _tch_, Bakugou maneuvered himself to the ground, a smooth landing against the clean, shiny floor while Deku pulled himself out of the Deku-shaped hole he'd left in the wall, clumsily slipping out and face planting onto the ground. Four Eyes was still yelling about something, arms chopping the air wildly, but Bakugou didn't really catch any of it.

Every single person in this d*** school was _extremely_ lucky that he'd been in a 'good mood' today, because those morons from MCH or whatever were some of the most annoying people he'd ever met and just their presence alone was starting to drive him up the wall. He was not a patient person, that much should be obvious by now, and he can only last so long with such delusional a**holes before he f***ing _snaps_.

And the fact that his old self is even remotely comparable to some of these guys is not helping with that. In fact, it's making him feel physically ill, and thus even more agitated.

Round Face made a sudden noise of surprise. "Oh! Um... Hi! Uh, how did you get here?"

Four Eyes fell eerily silent, arms frozen in midair, while Bakugou felt Kirishima's hand suddenly falling back on his shoulder, his grip somewhat tight. Deku was stumbling over to their little group up as well, a small 'oh' escaping his lips. Maybe Kirishima made a good choice in holding him back, because there was an irrational wave of anger running through Bakugou's system when he noticed her.

The blonde girl from before, giant emerald doe eyes practically glowing against the light in the room, was hiding behind the door frame, hands shaking as she clutched it tightly and fought to keep any tears from spilling over her cheeks. The anger left him after a moment, considering that this girl, compared to the others, hadn't done anything.

"Um..." she hesitated. "I, uh... I asked one of your classmates for directions... He had heterochromia."

D***it, Half n' Half.

"I..." she tried, stepping out from behind the wall, her hands still clasped against the frame and her knees buckling. One look at Bakugou and she nearly ran for it, but she swallowed harshly and steeled herself. "I- I wanted to talk to Mr. Iida Tenya?"

The five U.A. students exchanged unsure glances, Four Eyes clearing his throat as he stepped forward. "That was me. Did you need something, miss...erm,-"

"Y- Yano." she quickly supplied. "Yano Hiyori."

Bakugou wasn't sure what exactly Round Face caught on to, but she smiled at her. "It's very nice to meet you, Yano. My name's Uraraka."

Doe Eyes's face grew bright red in embarrassment, her hands playing with the hem of her skirt as she fought for her next words. Four Eyes spoke up again. "Yano, you said? You needed something, didn't you?"

"Oh, yes." she stammered, cheeks still flushed as she curled into herself. After a long pause, her face hardening with determination, she stepped forward.

And she bowed. "I'm sorry!"

All five of them were left absolutely speechless as she pressed on. "I know that Kyoya-sensei and my classmates will never apologize, so I'm doing it for them, b-because this kind of behavior is unacceptable, a-a-and I-, I..."

"You don't want to be lumped in with them." Bakugou said for her after a moment.

Doe Eyes looked up at him in surprise, still curled into herself, but her body slowly relaxed, the light in the room brightening again as she smiled in relief. "Yeah."

"Dude, my eyes..." Kirishima muttered to himself, rubbing at them carefully.

Doe Eyes jumped and the light suddenly dimmed. "Ah! I'm sorry! That's my quirk. I don't always have the best control over it. My emotions always get the better of me, you know?"

"Wait, wait, wait." Bakugou suddenly said, all eyes on him as he scrutinized Doe Eyes. Her eyes shone with fear and he found himself squinting at the light brightening up. "The h*** do you mean you 'don't always have the best control over it'? You're training to be a d*** hero, aren't you?"

Doe Eyes's expression turned regretful, almost sad even. "Oh, well, I guess... I just..."

The light became impossibly bright, forcing them to cover their eyes as her own filled with tears. Kirishima huffed. "Way to go, man. You made her cry."

"I wasn't trying to!" he shot back. "And why should I even care!?"

"I'm sorry..." he heard Doe Eyes say as she fought to dim the light. "I shouldn't be crying over it. I'm just frustrated is all."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Round Face offered, braving the blinding light and slowly inching closer until she found Doe Eyes's shoulder, pulling her close and draping her arm over her shoulder. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"No, it's okay." Doe Eyes insisted, the light finally dropping down from blinding. "I'm trying to be more open, anyway."

As soon as Pink Cheeks had her seated, Doe Eyes started on quite the tale, explaining that she hadn't even wanted to be a hero in the first place. Briefly mentioning a dysfunctional household, the story went that her father forced her to become a hero for the fame and money that came with it. He'd wanted to be one, but failed to make anything of himself, so he was living vicariously through her.

"He's pretty full of himself." she said. "He's convinced that my mother is a descendent of the very first quirk user."

"Wait, really?" Kirishima spoke up. "That'd actually be really cool!"

"Yeah, it would." she agreed. "We haven't confirmed it yet, but we are planning on testing her DNA. Either hers or mine. It's mostly because we have the same quirk as the first quirk user, or at least a very close one."

She gestured towards the room around them. "My quirk is registered as 'Bright' and it allows me to illuminate, so my body gets super bright. The more light there is, the more I can create."

"So you're useless in a dark room? That's pretty lame." Bakugou was immediately smacked in the back of the head by Kirishima.

"Yeah, it's not very useful compared to other quirks." Doe Eyes agreed. "And I haven't done much to hone in my quirk for heroism, so..."

She suddenly smiled bright, the light increasing again. "What I actually want to do is business! My dream job is to be a hero's PR manager! All that sort of stuff seems so interesting to me!" Her smile slowly fell, her light dimming with it. "But...MCH doesn't offer business courses. It's only heroics, and it's stupidly easy to get into, so...heroics, it was."

"You're gonna die out there."

"Bakugou-" Four Eyes started.

"Actually, as harsh as that might seem," Deku stepped in. "He has a point. This is really dangerous. You can't just be a hero. It's not for the faint of heart. Most of us in this room have almost died at least once. Some of us even multiple times."

"Yeah, I bet you can tell us all a-f***ing-bout that, Deku."

"Oh, well, hello pot. I'm kettle."

Round Face snorted. Doe Eyes giggled.

I think what we're trying to say..." Kirishima spoke up. "Is that you should do what _you_ want to do. Heroism is dangerous work. If you're not all in, then don't. If you want to do business, then do everything in your power to get into business. Who knows. Maybe you'll really make something out of yourself!"

"I couldn't have said it better myself, Kirishima." Four Eyes agreed.

Doe Eyes smiled brightly. "You really think so?"

Deku crouched down next to her, taking her hands. "Yeah, we do. And we'll be rooting for you."

Doe Eyes fully relaxed at this point, smiling and giggling as Deku and Round Face began telling her stories about their many adventures as U.A. heroics students. Kirishima joined them soon enough, eyes sparkling as he told of his own experiences. Bakugou wasn't sure when Four Eyes left, but he made his own exit soon after, not wanting to fall behind on his d*** sleep schedule when they'll be going head first into h*** tomorrow with the jerks that make up the rest of Doe Eyes's class. Whatever tomorrow brought, he knew it wasn't going to be pretty.

But at least he could safely say that _one_ of them was f***ing sane.

* * *

Bakugou knew that today was going to be an absolute disaster when he rolled out of bed the next morning with a pounding headache.

Just looking at his reflection in the mirror, he could see the way his hair became even less controllable than it usually was and the slight shadow under his eyes. His shoulders were throbbing as if he'd slept wrong and an uncomfortable chill ran through his body. He could already feel his temper rising and nothing had even happened yet.

Yeah, this was gonna be a bad day for everybody involved.

Going for his jog, the air was just cold enough to be uncomfortable and just warm enough that a jacket was too hot, and not a single bird could be heard in the sky. He pointedly ignored any early risers that might be staring as he passed by, their presence normally easy to ignore.

He wasn't sure where the delusional MCH schmucks were hanging out, but he did happen upon Doe Eyes at some point. For some strange reason that actually made his blood boil, she'd completely lost her fear of him, smiling and waving as soon as their eyes met as if they were already friends or something. They'd only met each other last f***ing night. F***ing extra.

But he held his tongue, nodding to her in acknowledgment and continuing on his way, because if nothing else, she's the only sane, reasonable person in that group of whack jobs and he respected that. For someone in her situation, she'd at least earned the right to be noticed.

Coming back to the dorms, Deku and Four Eyes were both wide awake and making too much noise, Ponytail being a decent, observant human being and telling them, albeit overly politely, to shut up. He made a mental note to make an effort to be just a little bit nicer to her today. Half n' Half just kind of loitered around like he does. From there, the normal flow of people began to filter through and trying his best to ignore the f***ing noise, he went to school.

And, oh yeah. The heathens have breached their sanctuary.

Stomping down the hallway, he already knew that the ugly cackling up ahead meant no good and he was in no mood to deal with anything right now. The way that the extras around him were scattering, fighting to stay out of his way and avoid his wrath, was a strong indicator of this.

Whatever rage aura he was giving off today was apparently strong enough for even the dumbest people to notice and keep away from, so the one he actually _felt_ himself emitting when he saw what was going on must have been enough to crack windows.

"And what the h*** is up with your weird a** eyes, anyway?"

"weeeeird..."

Ashido barely looked at either b****, String Hair waiting for a rebuttal with her hands on her hips while the f***ing Barbie doll just stood there and stared off into space having war flashbacks. Closing her locker with a click, the pinkette eyed them warily.

Earlobes, standing next to her, scowled. "And what the h*** is up with your stringy a** hair, anyway?"

Bakugou smiled internally.

He would find out later that it was Ponytail and Sparkles who String Hair had gone after first, Ashido and Earlobes coming to their defense soon after. Both of them were watching quietly, neither sure of what they should do or say as the two girls and the b****es stared each other down.

"B****, have you even looked in a mirror? Fire your hair stylist _pronto_."

"Prooonto..."

"At least I use conditioner."

"And at least I'm actually pretty." she suddenly pointed at Barbie. "You shut up."

Barbie shut her mouth.

"Jirou, please calm down." Ponytail muttered. "They're not worth the trouble. Let's just go to class."

"I agree, mademoiselle." Twinkle Toes added. "I will not be associated with such uncouth behavior."

Someone whistled loudly, making everyone jump. There was a moment where Ashido and Earlobes gave each other incredulous glances while Ponytail bit her lip and Twinkle Toes just looked unbelievably lost. String Hair, on the other hand, looked smug as f***.

There was the clicking of men's oxfords, girls around the hallway squeeing and cooing as a new arrival entered the scene. From what Bakugou remembered, he'd referred to this guy as a second twinkle toes, with long pink hair tied back and slick eyes that were attractive enough for him to admit that to himself that they were, in fact, aesthetically pleasing. At the same time, however, the look in said eyes and the way he walked like he was on a runway gave him the near irresistible urge to punch him in the throat as hard as he could.

"Such feisty kittens." he said, and Bakugou literally almost threw up his breakfast, it was so disgusting. "Such fine ladies shouldn't be so unruly, you know."

"Don't worry about them, Akasako." String Hair said haughtily. "They're not worth our time."

Jirou snorted. "Not worth _your_ time?" she muttered mostly to herself, though it was loud enough to hear.

"Jirou," Twinkle Toes spoke up. "Perhaps it's best to not provoke them, especially so early in the morning."

"Oh?" Second Sparkles cooed, his tone making him feel ill. Something about his disposition was just making him feel incredibly uncomfortable and that wasn't helping his mood in any way. "And who do we have here? A peasant acting as if he were a gentleman?"

Twinkle Toes squawked, far less confident than a member of U.A.'s class 1-A should be. "Excuse moi? What do you mean _like_ a gentleman? I _am_ a gentleman."

Second Twinkle Toes... F*** it, he's just calling him Fancy Pants, hummed. "Delusional, as well? That really is a shame. I pity you."

"Hey." Ashido growled, eyes glowing with righteous anger. "You can back off. Aoyama is a million times more of a man than you are, anyway."

He sighed. "It really is a shame, indeed. No gentleman should dirty himself with such a hideous creature as you."

Bakugou distantly thought he heard the sound of a tea kettle whistling.

Before anyone could say anything to that, Aizawa made his appearance, herding his students to class with a well hidden look of disdain in his eyes. The three s***s sauntered off, leaving him and his classmates to seethe. He barely noticed Ponytail looking at him with wide eyes, only now realizing that he witnessed the whole thing. It would be the at the end of the first class that she would inform the other two girls, Ashido approaching warning him to not cause trouble. As irritating as it is, it's not worth the aftermath. It apparently didn't hurt her anyway, according to her own words, and Sparkles has tougher skin than he lets on. At least, she thinks so. None of this did anything to quell his fury.

Earlobes took her seat and glanced at him. "Listen, I personally don't care what you do, but if you do decide to quench his thirst for blood, if you can either do it where I can watch or you get it recorded, that'd be fantastic."

"Don't worry." Bakugou had responded easily, rolling his eyes. "He's _definitely_ on my s***list now."

Earlobes grinned wildly at that.

* * *

Apparently, that wasn't the only s*** that went down early that morning.

Bakugou nearly kicked himself for even noticing, let alone caring, but Deku and Uraraka had waddled into class two minutes late, Deku with an ugly bruise on the side of his face, between his eye and hairline, and Uraraka with her own face bright red with uncontrollable rage. Listening in, he'd overhear everything as Deku spoke with the Grape and Sero about what happened.

"Yeah, it was nothing serious. Um, what was his name? Rikiya? Rikiya. The VP."

"What about him?" Sero asked incredulously.

Deku was squirming with discomfort in his chair enough for Bakugou to feel it from his own seat as he let out a sigh. "Yeah, Uraraka and I were walking down the stairs and I tripped, though Uraraka says that she saw him trip me as he was walking by. I got a few bruises, but I'm okay."

"Wait, _what?_" Grapestain shrieked. "He could have killed you!"

"Are you really okay?" Sero asked hastily, an edge to his tone.

"Yeah, yeah! It's really no big deal!" Deku insisted as the next class began. Sero looked like he wanted to hunt the guy down, but dropped it.

It was a moment later that Deku finally noticed Bakugou glancing back at him. He didn't know what his eyes were saying, but Deku flinched under his gaze before his expression hardened, biting his lip before making a cutting motion over his neck and mouthing one word.

_Don't_.

He was still unaware of what his eyes were telling him, but Deku's expression morphed into that of mild shock the moment he turned back around. He pointedly, _pointedly_ ignored the ugly, uncomfortable churning in his stomach.

He would later overhear Earlobes, Tentacles and Bird Brain talking about how the harpy kid was harassing Bird Brain all morning, and that was after he'd gone after the kid with jet black skin from 1-B and Big Hands and Lizard Girl went and scared him off. He also overheard Kaminari and Ashido gossiping about how the big kid with sideburns and big teeth had nearly attacked the beast kid from 1-B, the only incident so far where Nurse Dumba** stepped in, though it was clearly to avoid legal problems with U.A., because Nezu is dangerous in that department. In front of him, Uniform joined the conversation, complaining about how the knife finger guy had threatened Tail in the bathroom, angry after someone had said something slightly negative about Snipe, his apparent favorite hero, and thought it was him.

It wasn't even lunch time yet and it had already gotten out of hand, and unless Bakugou wanted to get U.A.'s reputation dragged even further into the dirt, he couldn't even do anything about it.

A bizarre sense of uselessness fell over him and he couldn't even put his finger on as to why. Other than Muted Red, he didn't really have any personal beefs. And yet, watching these guys take shots at his classmates, he suddenly felt himself becoming more and more..._offended_.

Classes were over before he knew it, most of their teachers being somewhat passive aggressive towards Nurse Dumba** and her class since they weren't present, still on that d*** tour or whatever it was. Even All Might had something scathing to say under his breath, which had both Bakugou and Deku nearly losing it while everyone else just looked on in amused confusion.

Aizawa huffed as the clock struck lunch time and everyone slowly crawled out of their seats, stacking his paperwork with a look that just screamed his desire for the mercy of death.

"So," Sero sighed. "Who wants to hang out here with Aoyama instead of going to the cafeteria and dodge the bullet."

"Uh, dude," Kaminari said. "Really? Not cool."

"What?" There was a long pause before his eyes lit up with realization. "_Oh_. Oh come on, dude. No one even remembers that."

Bakugou snorted loudly. "I sure don't."

Kaminari wheezed like a fifty year smoker on death's door while Sero started coughing harshly. Kirishima smiled, his voice somewhat quiet as he giggled to himself like a schoolgirl. "Death's afraid of him, b****."

A few of their other classmates around them started to chuckle, immediately cluing him in to their eavesdropping. Bakugou decided to be merciful and amuse them. "Oh, please. Death _is_ my b****."

Half of the class lost it, stumbling out of the classroom. He's pretty sure he just resurrected a meme.

"Bakugou," Aizawa's voice drawled out, slightly surprising him. His eyes were as dead as usual, boring into his very soul with their steely gaze. "I need to speak with you for a moment. It shouldn't take long."

Bakugou gave a questioning look to the three idiots before looking back at Aizawa with an attentive nod. Off to the side, Ashido was watching in mild concern, looking back as the other girls pulled her out of the classroom along with the others. Sparkles was forced to vacate as well for the purpose of privacy.

It was the moment that the doors closed behind them that Aizawa's expression shifted, a fire burning somewhere deep in his dark, tired orbs. He plopped himself down behind his desk, sorting through papers before leaning onto it, gesturing towards Uniform's seat. Bakugou gingerly took the seat, watching Aizawa inquisitively as he let out a long, harsh sigh.

"First of all, kid," he started. "I want to thank you for controlling yourself. You've made incredible progress and you deserve praise for it."

Bakugou felt his face heat up for reasons he couldn't decipher. He simply turned away, a heavy scowl marring his features.

"That aside," Aizawa leaned back onto his desk, hands folded in front of him. "I'm here to offer you an opportunity for revenge."

Bakugou immediately perked up, staring at his homeroom teacher with wide eyes. Aizawa could probably see the gears turning in his head, so he continued. "Allow me to elaborate. As you know, MCH's class 1-A will be present for heroics classes today, and from my understanding, class 1-B will be as well. What you may not know is that the faculty have been...colluding."

He stood up, slowly strolling around the front of the classroom with a thoughtful expression. "Some of the most respectable small time news networks, that both I and All Might agreed on, will be there, as the public have been clambering for more information, as usual. This might shut them up for a little while at least."

He looked him directly in the eye. "Without giving too much away, Nezu is putting a plan in action to, perhaps, _defame_ MCH for their honestly outrageous claims. And this plan, should you agree to play along, would heavily rely on you."

As much as this sudden and unexpected turn of events excited him, he could hear the underlying uncertainty. He raised an eyebrow. "What's the catch?"

Aizawa didn't miss a beat, keeping eye contact and not wavering once. "Nezu wanted me to ask you because he thinks you would do it best. In order for this plan to work exactly as we want, you would have to actively play a villainous role."

Something in Bakugou's stomach twisted painfully, his face contorting to the somewhat overwhelming feeling. After everything he's been through, after everything that's been thrown at him in his life, using the term 'villain' to describe himself left a bitter taste in his mouth. The images that flashed through his head were fuzzy, but familiar all the same.

Aizawa sighed. "Think about it. You have until heroics classes to give me an answer." He took a book from his desk and closed it with a slam of finality, promptly turning on his heel and striding to the door. "That was all. You can leave now."

And with that, Bakugou was left in the empty classroom with nothing but his own thoughts.

* * *

He expected some s*** to go down before he got to the cafeteria. He expected someone from his class to f*** off in frustration from MCH's newest shenanigans. He expected an eventual retaliation, for someone to finally lose their temper and counterattack in a fit of anger.

What he did not expect was for that person to be Todoroki.

Storming through the cafeteria doors, the dual quirk user stomped passed him without even noticing him, and Bakugou watched in mild confusion as he wordlessly kicked a trashcan over and rounded a corner, steam and frosted air rolling off of his shoulders.

Well then.

Walking into the cafeteria, he could make out a crowd dissipating, heroics students from both classes milling around and avoiding the one table in the room where MCH was hanging out.

The girl with tentacle hair had a red hand print on her face and a scuffed up uniform. She seemed dazed, almost in a dream-like state. Bakugou suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable, and he wasn't even involved in whatever this was. He didn't even _know_ what this was.

"Hey, did you see Todoroki come through here?" Bakugou turned to see the Kiri wannabe, light concern on his face smothered by waning frustration.

Bakugou furrowed his brows. "Just passed him. What the h*** even happened?"

Kiri wannabe, _name, what was his name, it was something dumb,_ cringed, looking towards the door with an unreadable expression. "You really don't want to know."

Bakugou scowled. "You wanna bet?"

What's-his-face growled. "...Fine. Mizukami, the squid girl from MCH. She was...talking to Todoroki...very _inappropriately_."

Bakugou felt his blood start to boil, absentmindedly grinding his teeth as the guy continued. "She wouldn't leave him alone, following him around the cafeteria and saying _really weird _things to him. Just before he left, I actually saw her _touch him_."

Bakugou was sure his jaw actually dropped to the floor as..._Tetsutetsu, that was it! _He continued. "Todoroki immediately turned around and gave her the slap of the century. It was incredible. Seriously, you should have seen it. She actually got knocked against a table and took it down with her. Anyway, she still didn't stop, probably had whatever brains she had left smacked out of her, so I went over and shoved her to the floor, which gave him the chance to get away. Hitonari, the girl with stringy hair, she was accusing us of assaulting her without reason because of it a moment ago. Thank goodness people around here aren't stupid."

Now, Bakugou didn't consider himself all that close to Half n' Half. H***, he only just remembered what Tetsutetsu's name even was, and that's only because he's one of Kirishima's friends. But this? He hasn't been this uncontrollably, unfathomably _angry_ in a while. There's something burning, writhing underneath the surface, a righteous fury that has him teetering on the edge of all out war.

There are certain lines that you should never cross.

"Oh, so now you show up!" a familiarly annoying voice whined loudly as Droopy Eyes practically ran up to them. "Where were you when these jerks were trying to drag Tetsu through the ringer, huh!? They're going after your guys, too, jacka**!"

"Okay, you, be nice!" Tetsutetsu ordered, waving his finger at the exasperated Droopy Eyes. "I'm going after Todoroki. Let me know if something happens, and don't die!"

And he ran off after Icyhot, leaving Bakugou and Droopy Eyes alone together as if that was somehow a good idea.

"This has gotten way out of f***ing hand." Bakugou growled.

"I never thought I'd see the day where I would agree with you on something and not feel dirty, but here we are." Droopy Eyes responded in annoyance. "Those Hitonari sisters have been harassing all the girls in my class relentlessly, especially Kendou and Shiozaki. And I'm sure you heard about how Kurotori, yeah his name is_ Kurotori_, made fun of Kuroiro and how Kiga actually tried to hurt Shishida. Like, _what the h***_!"

Bakugou had absolutely no clue who most of these people were, but he chose to just let Droopy vent. They were kind of in the same boat on this one, two a**holes forced to watch people they..._respected_ suffer. "And Akasako? Oooooh boy, is he dead. He made Tsunotori cry. You _don't make Tsunotori cry_. And Tateno? With the knives? I'm convinced he's got issues. He's threatened about half of my class at this point, and that Kyoya lady, their teacher, _isn't. Doing. Anything._"

Bakugou stayed quiet as Droopy Eyes began to pace, letting out a harsh sigh. "And what about that s***tani character? He giving you guys trouble too?"

Droopy tripped, nearly falling flat on his face as he looked at him with a wide, mystified expression. "Can... Can I use that? I'm gonna use that. Wow."

Bakugou rolled his eyes. "Guess he hasn't bothered you guys as much as he has us."

"Hmph. Obviously knows who the best class is."

"F***ing h***." he huffed in irritation.

"Hey, so wait a minute!" Droopy Eyes suddenly yelled. "How come you haven't taught them a lesson yet?! You're an uncontrollable rage monster! Unfiltered anger and righteous fury are your thing! Kill them!"

"Oh, yeah, sure!" Bakugou immediately shouted back. "U.A. crazy kid murders class of amateur heroes! That'd look _fantastic_ on U.A.'s resume!"

Droopy scrutinized him, but didn't say anything further, choosing instead to turn away, crossing his arms and pouting like a child being put in timeout. Bakugou groaned in annoyance, rolling his eyes and turning towards his friends' usual hangout spot.

He suddenly remembered that he really, really hated the Musutafu Conservatory for Heroics. It could burn to the ground and the world would be a better place.

Kirishima had gotten involved. He didn't know how or why, but Kirishima got involved, now arguing with String Hair and Beta. Doe Eyes was there as well, supposedly trying and failing to defuse the situation. He heard Droopy say something, but he didn't quite catch it as he stomped over there himself.

He eyed Squid Hair dangerously. She was at an acceptable distance from the conflict for the time being.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Kirishima said rather loudly. "I've been trying to give you guys the benefit of the doubt, but you're making yourselves harder and harder to defend! This is unacceptable!"

String Hair scoffed. "Like I'd give a d*** about someone who styles their hair like _that_. The h*** is wrong with you?"

"Wrong with youuuuu..."

"I didn't ask for your opinion!"

"Guys, please..." Doe Eyes tried, but she was easily drowned out.

Beta sighed. "Calm down, guys. And you, Kirishima, was it?" His smile was that of a corrupt politician. "I apologize that our groups aren't getting along, but I think it would be best if you just back off and leave us alone."

"Leave _you_ alone!?" Kirishima practically shrieked. "Did you not just see what Mizu-what's-her-face over here did!?"

"I'll have you know that Mizukami is our third rank and a respectable hero in training."

"What about any of this is respectable?!" _Yeah, tell 'em, Kiri._ "Is this really your standard!? Because I'm absolutely _terrified_ of what the rest of your school might be like if _this_ is the best you guys have to offer!"

Now that Bakugou is thinking about it, that might be the first time that he ever saw Beta get mad. "I don't appreciate you talking about my classmates that way."

"And _we_ don't appreciate you treating our classmates like s***." Kirishima jumped at the sound of Bakugou's voice behind him, the Blonde's hand grasping his shoulder and pulling him to his left. "Like I told your f***ing dictator, I let you off with a warning: Clean up or back off, because I've just about had it with you and I _know_ I'm not the only one."

There was a sudden shift in atmosphere by the first word that left his mouth, the majority of the cafeteria going silent in favor of watching whatever catastrophe they thought was about to take place. Most of 1-B looked ready to cream themselves while his own classmates were fighting to keep the grins off of their faces. Doe Eyes, meanwhile, looked somewhat conflicted.

And MCH was fighting for words.

Beta raised his hands defensively. "Hey, hey now, calm down."

"Calm down? _Calm down_? I have been _lenient _with you f***s. I have held my tongue. I haven't laid a finger on a single one of you, yet you all think that straight up assault is _fine_?"

"Careful." Kirishima whispered. "Don't lose your cool now."

"I ought to kill him. Every last one of them." he snarled. "Other than Doe Eyes, none of these guys are even worth our time."

He glared at Beta with cruel, dangerous eyes filled with blood lust, a shiver running down the hero wannabe's spine. "You're f***ing with the wrong school, punk."

Varying levels of fear flashed throughout the crowd, both heroics students and not. The MCH jerks were watching carefully, cornered animals ready to lash out. He could hear a commotion behind him, but he couldn't care less. As much as his classmates probably didn't want to start anything, he knew that they were looking forward to karmic retribution just as much as he was, and _f*** it_, he will gladly deliver it.

Kirishima sounded somewhat panicked. "Dude-"

"Wait-" Beta started, a look of fear in his eyes, but Bakugou suddenly realized with startling clarity that he was no longer looking at him.

Several things happened at once.

The MCH kids all scrambled back, trying to get as far away from the conflict as possible. Doe Eyes screamed as she scurried away and Beta activated what Bakugou could only assume was his quirk, putting up what looked like a force field of some kind and taking a step back with wide, shocked eyes.

By the time Bakugou saw the movement out of the corner of his eye, all he had time to do was guard his face.

The sound of glass shattering and water splashing onto the floor assaulted his ears, leaving half of the room in stunned silence and the other screeching in shock. He grit his teeth, the cold water soaking into his clothes making his body twitch and shiver uncomfortably. He'd discover later that pieces of glass had cut into his right arm and cheek.

But that wouldn't be until later, because not even a second after the impact, he realized that the water wasn't cold at all.

He hissed as he felt the steam rolling off of his uniform jacket, and if he didn't know any better, he'd claim he heard a light sizzling sound. The skin visible around his hand and neck were already turning bright red and it took every amount of willpower he had to not scream, his body involuntarily curling in to itself and hands clenching tightly in pain.

He vaguely wondered how Half n' Half was able to take this to his face as a kid.

"Dude, what the s***!?" he heard Kaminari yell above the chairs screeching against the smooth floor, Ashido letting out an unbridled scream.

He briefly glanced up, catching Kirishima's horrified eyes. He could make out the hints of scratches against his hardened skin, where glass had struck him as well. Off to the side, he could make out Deku's face, wide eyed and expression completely and utterly blank.

"Good grief, Shintani..." he heard Beta say in awe. "That was a bit too far. You could get in serious trouble for that. Kyoya-sensei can't always-."

"He started it." Muted shot back. "If he can go around and threaten us, then we have every right to fight back! He has no room to talk when he's basically a villain himself!"

"Oi!" Uraraka screamed. "Watch your mouth, you-!"

"Stop."

It was low, gruff in his lower register. He almost liked the feeling of his vocal cords buzzing against his throat, distracting from the scalding pain shooting up his right side. The air felt cool against his burnt skin as Kirishima made quick work of tearing off his wet jacket to minimize damage, revealing his reddened arm and a light stream of blood. Kirishima hissed against the heat biting at his fingertips before dropping it just a little too quickly.

The searing pain became background noise to the roiling heat growing in his bloodstream, churning and writhing, rising up and out of his control. And yet, despite the pure, constant familiarity he'd always had with anger and rage, this almost felt new.

It was a quiet rage. Seething, burning at the surface and barely contained. It sank deep into the recesses of his mind, festering and growing beyond his capability of understanding until it was all encompassing, gnashing and roaring just below visibility. He could feel its manifestation, an aura almost visible to the naked eye as his heart pounded and his blood boiled like the water thrown against his skin.

Someone once said that laughter was a reaction that the body had evolved towards stimuli that the brain couldn't fully process. It didn't matter whether or not the subject matter was actually funny. It was why people could laugh at the worst jokes or at the most inappropriate times, why laughter follows behind the maddest, craziest of people. Sometimes, in the face of something you can't quite place, fear, shock, _anger_, it just might be the only thing left that you can do.

So he laughed.

It was a low chuckle, subdued, yet almost manic, a quiet sound that you might miss in a louder room, and yet, in that moment, one might think that it was the loudest sound in the world.

He never saw the ghost white expressions of inconsolable terror overtaking the sea of faces surrounding them, nor did he see the shell-shocked looks of confusion or smothered hope amongst the heroics students of U.A., or even the skeptical confusion of MCH.

All he saw, glancing over his tensed shoulder, was Muted Red's apprehension, possibly the first time he'd backpedaled since the beginning of this whole debacle yesterday. He didn't know what his own face looked like, but he could only imagine that even he himself might have been intimidated by what appeared to be a man possessed.

"Is that how it is?" he asked carefully, an almost otherworldly quality in his deceptively level, yet raspy voice. "I'm the villain, yeah? You want me to play the bad guy? Is that it?"

He grinned wildly, eyes blazing and unrestrained. "Fine. I'm the f***ing bad guy."

And with that, he turned back towards where he believed Kirishima still was, his overwhelming rage sinking away to fester and prosper, to be incubated and preserved until the awaited moment. He felt Kirishima's grip on him, solid but not tight as he began to lightly pull him alongside him. "Come on, man. It doesn't look like it's too bad. I bet it'll be an easy fix if we hurry and get to-."

"Recovery Girl. Yeah, take me there." he said coolly, feeling Kirishima stiffen against him. He could only smile deliriously. "And get Aizawa while you're at it. I need to talk to him about something."

* * *

**And here's to assuming that Recovery Girl's quirk works on burns and scaldings. Woo! **

**Tune in next time for "Bakugou declares war on these fools and legally murders them: the fanfic". XD See you then and thanks for reading!**


	2. The Consequences

**As I say with every fic of mine, sorry for the constant censoring. It doesn't bother me when other people cuss, but when I try to do it, I get physically ill. The few times I actually did it resulted in panic attacks. I censor for my own sanity so I can stay in character with certain POVs(you know who). ****I say CUSSING IS CENSORED 'CAUSE I'M A WUSS on EVERY summary for this reason, and because I know it bothers people, which is why I'm sorry, but I just can't use cuss words. I really am sorry about that. It must drive some people nuts. **

**Maybe if I got a beta reader or a proofreader or something, I could get them to write them in for me whenever I go to fix all the grammatical errors in my works. Yeah, now there's an idea! Until then, however, this is the best I've got, so thanks for being patient with me. :)**

**Anyway, at first, when I started writing this story, I'd planned on the revenge sequence being short, just something like, 'so here's what happened' and moving on, because it's inevitable. We all know how this is gonna end. But then I thought to myself, "You know what would be really neat? If MCH actually put up a fight. They put up a fight, and you get to see that fight, but it was in vain, because the skill gap is just so immense, and all of their hopes and dreams are stomped out right in front of them in excruciating detail." I thought that sounded more fun. So, here we are. That's the whole reason this is a two shot instead of one, actually. **

**Also, ALL of the Our Hero references. All of them. I reference that fic a lot. This chapter is even 43 pages. What even. See, this is what happens when I'm following up on something of that magnitude. XD **

**I also don't know how to write fight scenes. Forgive me if you don't have a clue what's going on. :'( I tried my best to be clear and descriptive and interesting. I don't know what's come over me recently, but I've felt so nervous about posting this story. I don't even know why. I hope you guys can enjoy it regardless. ^^**

**Oh yeah, and Mizukami still gets touchy-feely in this chapter. Please, don't force yourself to read that scene if it makes you uncomfortable. It's not graphic, but I don't want to catch anyone off guard. ^^; You'll know it when you see it. It isn't sudden.**

**Alright. Now then, ...**

** PAYBACK TIME**

* * *

Standing before Ground Beta in her hero costume, Uraraka felt oddly conflicted.

The entirety of U.A. was present for this class, the heroics classes waiting at the site itself while the rest of the school and a select few news crews watched on screens from the main building. Apparently, this whole spectacle with MCH was pretty big news, information of the event rumored to have been leaked by principal Nezu himself.

It was a relatively warm day for this time of year, several of her classmates choosing their summer costumes in celebration of the comfortable weather. As much as Uraraka wished that today had been a more enjoyable day overall to lift their spirits, at least there was _something_ that she could be happy about.

Standing here with the majority of her class, she was really starting to get worried about Todoroki. Ever since he'd met back up with everyone for heroics classes, he'd been quiet, which wasn't unusual for him. No, what worried her was his reaction to hearing about what happened after he left, though to be fair to him, she was just as ticked.

"Boil." Yano had explained to her, near tears. "It's Shintani's quirk. Anything he touches with all five fingers quickly rises to its natural boiling temperature. He's unintentionally caused a lot of damage in the past because he wasn't careful and melted something. I'm so sorry I didn't say anything. I knew he was up to something when he stuck his hand in that glass, but I didn't think he would-."

Uraraka had stopped her there, pulling her into a tight hug and gently reassuring her, because by the looks of it, literally no one in that room had been expecting the guy to take a freaking breakable glass of scalding hot water and hurl it at Bakugou like a molotov cocktail.

When Todoroki found them again and Midoriya, expression still unreadable, explained to him what happened, there was an emotion that flashed across his eyes so fast that she didn't catch it, but Uraraka could safely say that she saw something follow that she never thought she'd see, and that was Todoroki manifesting the iconic Baku rage aura. Midoriya told her that Todoroki's own burn scar was from being scalded, but he refused to say anything more, instead joining Todoroki in his spiraling decent into silent rage. Kaminari, Sero, and Ashido followed along soon after. Kirishima had yet to be seen at all.

She heard that Aizawa had nearly straight up canceled everything and kicked them all out when he found out about everything that had happened during lunch. The reason why he _didn't_ had yet to be revealed.

"So," Tetsutetsu's voice suddenly cut through the air. "Have any of you guys been told anything? 'Cause Teach hasn't said anything about what this class is gonna be about."

"You too?" Kaminari asked. "Aizawa's been pretty tight-lipped about it. We have seen some of the MCH hero costumes, though."

"Yeah, man." Sero piped up. "They're actually not that bad. I bet they got them done professionally since they don't have any support classes."

Kaminari grinned. "Welp, I suppose that would explain where the rest of their budget went after they splurged on that bus."

Ashido smiled for the first time since lunch.

"Oh s***!" Jirou suddenly exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

A commotion followed, Uraraka turning to find Kirishima and Bakugou making a surprise appearance, both clad in their hero costumes. Kaminari, Sero, and Ashido were all immediately at their feet, Midoriya making some kind of squeaking noise and a few others watching on in unspoken concern.

Uraraka did not miss the fact that Bakugou was wearing his winter costume.

"Pardon me if I sound belittling," said Yaoyorozu. "But are you really well enough for heroics classes? Burns and scalds are no laughing matter."

"Yeah, you good?" Kaminari questioned.

"Burn injuries are a serious matter, Bakugou!" Iida exclaimed. "If you are not at one hundred percent, than you shouldn't force yourself to come to class!"

Bakugou scowled dangerously at them, his eyes sharpened and bright against his dark mask. "I'm fine, you extras. As if such a cheap shot like that could keep me down."

"He let Recovery Girl heal him." Kirishima explained. "He was a bit drowsy a moment ago, but he's pretty much good to go. Said something about a s***list that he needed to attend to."

Bakugou grinned. "Exactly. Look, it only left scars around my shoulder and upper arm, and we got there fast enough that Recovery girl took care of most of the damage, so don't worry about it. She said they might even go away eventually."

"Promise?" Uraraka jumped at Todoroki's sudden appearance next to her, watching him intently. Bakugou glared at him, barring his teeth, but reached up and pulled at the fabric hiding his neck a moment later, revealing healthy, burn free skin. Todoroki scrutinized him for what felt like minutes before he nodded to himself and turned away, wordlessly lumbering over to his original spot off to the side and sitting down by himself.

"Weirdo." Bakugou mumbled to himself, though the bite wasn't there.

"So everyone's here." Tokage suddenly said as class 1-B began to migrate towards where 1-A was. "What happens now?"

"Your guess is as good as ours." Jirou admitted with a shrug.

"Whatever is in store for us," Iida spoke up, chopping at the air. "I do hope that we finally have the opportunity to give class 1-A of the Musutafu Conservatory for Heroics a lesson in manners and respect!"

"Wow, you hear that?" Sero chuckled. "Even Iida's sick of these guys."

"Even I can only tolerate so much." he admitted solemnly.

"Oh, you think that's impressive?" Kendou laughed. "Monoma's actually been clambering for a truce with you guys."

Half of 1-A, Uraraka included, either choked on nothing or spat air.

"Why do we need a truce? I don't understand!" Yaoyorozu said in exasperation.

"Don't worry about it." Jirou sighed, patting her shoulder.

"Okay, listen!" Monoma shouted from behind his classmates. "I have had it up to _here_ with these people and I am willing to accept an alliance with the lesser of two evils and take on the common threat that is..." he suddenly swiveled towards Bakugou. "What was his name again?"

"S***tani."

"Thank you!" Monoma yelled. "Best thing you've ever spat out! Now, whose with me!?"

The majority of 1-B and a few of 1-A just looked scared.

"I wouldn't worry about it." Bakugou said aloud, a threatening smirk on his face. "I think Aizawa has everything handled. I'm honestly pretty excited."

"Wait, do you know what's going on!? Tell me!" Ashido yelled.

Sero raised an eyebrow at Ashido. "You're not at all concerned about how ominous that just sounded?"

"AAAAAAALRIGHT, LISTENERS!" An overwhelmingly loud voice screamed through the speaker system, leaving Uraraka's ears ringing. "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLEEEEEEEE!"

There was a scuffle, causing the speakers to squeal before a familiarly tired voice drawled out. "U.A. students of class 1-A and class 1-B, there are bleachers prepared for you in the facilities located in the outer walls of Ground Beta. Please take a seat and make yourselves comfortable."

The group all looked at each other in confusion, slowly trickling in the direction they were pointed in. Before they could ask any questions, Nezu's voice boomed across the field. "Today's heroics class will be featuring a school that has been in the public eye as of late. According to their records, they have risen as our rivals, their school's location being in close proximity to us, and we've happily invited them to our beloved school to experience our lifestyle and to challenge their students to keep up with the same standard as we do. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Musutafu's heroes of tomorrow, Class 1-A of the Musutafu Conservatory for Heroics!"

"Nezu out here, hamming it up." Sero chuckled. Uraraka smiled.

"Now then, today's exercise will be simple. Our ten guests of honor will be playing the role of the heroes, trying to protect the city from a large scale villain attack." Gathering in a familiar looking control room, where some nice seats had in fact been prepared for them, Uraraka could see a diagram of Ground Beta popping up on the giant screens in the room.

"Dude, this is nice!" Kaminari said excitedly. "Can we just stay here and eat snacks while we watch those jerks face off against our teachers or something? I would love that!"

"Dude, that would be sick!" Tetsutetsu laughed.

Jirou snorted. "Man, I wish."

"I would enjoy that, too." Todoroki added.

Nezu continued. "The heroes will be tasked with protecting as many civilians, represented by dummies, as possible and minimizing collateral damage while defeating the villains. All destruction done and lives lost will result in losing points."

Uraraka could practically hear the amusement in Nezu's voice. "Meanwhile, our own U.A. students will be playing the villain role. Their ultimate goal is to defeat all of the heroes in the city, earning points with every person they defeat. They have no restrictions in death or destruction of property, nor will they earn or lose points from it. They have completely free reign to do exactly as they please, so long as they can take down all of the heroes. The winning conditions are as follows."

Bullet points appeared on screen. "The heroes must defeat all villains with as little property damage and as few causalities as possible. Failure to minimize either will result in loss of points. Heroes also have the option to leave the site whenever they please, which will allow them to keep whatever amount of points they have, but take them out of the match. For the villains, all they must do is defeat all heroes by any means necessary."

The screen changed to security cameras, looking over Ground Beta before the destruction about to take place absolutely demolished it. "Now that the rules have been explained, I would like to give the mic back to class 1-A's homeroom teacher, the underground hero Eraserhead, for a moment."

Confusion washed over the heroics students, sharing matching looks of uncertainty as Aizawa's voice came through. "Ms. Kyoya, or should I say, the Ringing Hero: Tinnitus, we've known each other for a while now. We worked in the same office some years ago."

A moment of silence, a microphone being handed off to the irritating heroine. "What about it, Eraser?"

"From one acquaintance to another," Aizawa said. "I would like to propose a challenge."

"Oh yeah?" she asked haughtily. "And what would that be?"

The grin was so apparent in Aizawa's voice that a shiver ran down Uraraka's spine. It was like thunder. "_Ten v one_."

A hush fell over the crowds on U.A.'s campus and Uraraka's eyes widened, glancing around the group of young heroes surrounding her.

"Ten heroes, one villain." Aizawa explained. "Your so-called prodigies versus one of our best."

Uraraka finally realized that Bakugou was no longer there.

Tinnitus, the MCH teacher, huffed. "So-called? Those are fighting words, Eraser."

"Just know that you brought it upon yourself." Aizawa responded. "Do you accept?"

"_Bring it_." was her reply, and suddenly, Uraraka's heart was pounding.

"They're dead." Kirishima suddenly said, breaking the silence. "They're all dead. _Bakugou's not here_."

Ashido gasped. "So wait, we're getting our show?!"

"Where's the f***ing popcorn!?" Kaminari yelled.

"_Dear lord_." Sero breathed, smiling wildly. The excited chatter began to rise as the others began to connect the dots of Aizawa's master plan.

_**All h*** was about to break loose. **_

* * *

"Lose this match of all things and I will actually expel you."

Bakugou laughed despite himself, a toothy grin on his face and hands on his hips as he sauntered down the road towards his assigned starting point alongside Aizawa, slouching and stifling a yawn to hide his still obvious anticipation about the absolute war about to take place.

And that's what this was to them. All out war.

"So this is what it's come to." Beta had sighed, the ten of them lined up to face him while Aizawa squared up with Nurse Dumba**. Tinnitus, was it? Never heard of her.

"_Tch_. Not my fault you f***s acted all high and mighty and now you're all gonna get your a**es kicked on livestream."

"Oooooh." Fancy Pants cooed, earning a nasty glare. "And you just said that we're the high and mighty ones, yet you're already trash talking like a barbarian."

"I don't want to hear that s*** from you of all people. You've been trash talking the whole time." Bakugou snarled. "And I'm pretty sure I've earned my right to make fun of a bunch of egotistical wannabe sidekicks."

His eyes zeroed in on Muted Red, watching on with utter disinterest. "And you?" he grinned. "I'll be sure to send you home with a few burn scars of your own, courtesy of U.A.'s Beast of Class 1-f***ing-A. This is war."

Overlooking his competition, with only a couple notable exceptions, he was pleased to see that most of them had an idea of what they were up against. What they didn't seem to realize was that he had no intentions of taking it easy, and that was fully cemented when Doe Eyes of all people came up to him afterward, just before he left to take his position. "Hey, um, we're friends, right?"

Bakugou had eyed her skeptically as she wrung her hands and stared at the ground. She suddenly seemed a lot smaller than she actually is, and the girl already only came up to his shoulders. "I was wondering if...maybe...since I don't really want to be a hero, could you...you know...go easy on me?"

"Absolutely not."

She'd seemed genuinely stunned by both his reply and the speed he'd given it, running after him as he stormed off. "W- Wait! Did I say something wrong? If I somehow offended you, I'm sorry!"

"Can it, Doe Eyes." he grit out, turning to face her. "You didn't offend me, and I have nothing against you, but I do not and will not give anything less than my best for any reason whatsoever. I've never done things in halves and I ain't starting now. The best thing you can do for yourself is to do the same."

And he walked away. He didn't look back, so he never saw her reaction, but she didn't chase after him that time.

Now here, striding alongside his homeroom teacher towards the starting line, he couldn't help the grin overtaking his face, excited energy coursing through his fiery veins.

"Don't lose your head." Aizawa warned. "Intimidation is a power that you can abuse to your heart's content, but collateral damage is a means to an end. Your goal is to defeat all 'heroes' in the vicinity by any means necessary. The quicker, the better. The goal is efficiency."

"Yeah, yeah. I got it."

Walking out in front of the main gate out of Ground Beta, Aizawa shook his head. "I know you do, but a reminder never hurts."

"I said I got it. Don't worry about it."

Aizawa rolled his eyes. "The communication device in your ear is to communicate with me in case of an emergency, and _only_ an emergency. Wait here until you're given a signal. You'll have a minute head start to do whatever you want before the others come looking for you. I'll let you figure out what that might be."

Bakugou simply nodded, rolling his shoulders as Aizawa made his exit. "Don't screw this up."

"'Course not."

He thought he saw Aizawa smile, but it was probably his imagination.

* * *

At first, Bakugou had considered just going on a rampage and watching the world burn, but he ultimately decided to take a more tactical approach. _The goal is efficiency_.

So he flew around as much of the cityscape as he could, mentally mapping out assigned building functions such as banks, hotels, restaurants, etc., as well as dummy locations, a.k.a. civilian density in certain areas. He knew that realistically, he wouldn't be able to see his entire environment, but he might as well get a better understanding of exactly what he's working with.

He just so happened to be near the hero starting point when his minute was up, watching from a distance atop one of the shorter skyscrapers as the MCH students filed in. Bakugou couldn't hear them from where he was, but he could see them just fine, and he was curious how their team dynamic worked. After having it pounded into his skull for so, _so_ long, he'd starting becoming subconsciously aware of it in those around him. It was unbelievably annoying, but he couldn't help but wonder.

As it turns out, they had exactly none, immediately running off in ones and twos. Perfect. As much as he'd love to destroy them all at the same time, and he knows he could, this would be quicker, less of a hassle, and would ultimately make him and U.A. look better with the whole tactical approach and such. That, and despite Recovery Girl's help, his side was still sore from S***tani's earlier stunt.

He knew quite a few of their quirks, knowing Doe Eyes's, Knife Fingers's, the Harpy's, Tentacle Hair's, and Beta's, and having an idea of Muted Red's, Sideburns's, and Plastic Girl's. Fancy Pants and String Hair were completely unknown, which was _lovely_ because they are literally among the _last_ people that he'd want catching him by surprise.

With a huff, Bakugou took to the sky with a loud _boom!_ Might as well get this s***storm started.

Wind whistling passed his ears, it didn't take long for someone to follow the noise, a streak of black feathers zooming through city a few streets parallel to him. From what he remembered, their bird man had never particularly irked him. Sure, he kind of screwed with Bird Brain apparently, but the things he did were pretty tame compared to others. He could have a quicker death.

The figure was gone in a flash, vanishing behind one of the buildings. Bakugou was immediately on high alert, not slowing himself down as he spun around and eyed the harpy now directly above him dangerously. His opponent attempted to dive out of the sky and dropkick him, but Bakugou easily dodged him, flipping himself around before starting back on his trajectory.

"Ha! You think you could knock me out of the sky with those puny legs of yours?! They'd snap like twigs before you did any damage!"

The harpy let out some kind of noise of offense, reorienting himself. "You will not outwit me, Raid Boss! I will be a hero!"

"Whatever you say, Chicken Legs!"

There was an annoyed squawk as Bakugou made a sharp u-turn and zipped right passed him, throwing his balance back off. It was easy to maneuver around these buildings at high speed, but he had to say, he was still impressed that Chicken Legs was keeping up, darting around and staying just behind him. With a smirk shot back at his pursuer, he suddenly dropped down, twisting and turning through the lower streets and around both obstacles and dummies alike. Every time he heard a yelp or curse from behind, he couldn't help but smile.

And then he mentally slapped himself for being distracted and almost getting smacked out of the air by a long tentacle.

He barely twisted himself out of the way, shooting himself upward as it made a grab for him. He hadn't even known that she could extend those things, and pretty stupidly far, too. At this speed, it was hard to see where Squid Girl was, but he'd rather not get grabbed by her of all people, thanks. After the whole display she'd made of herself in the cafeteria, he felt safer with Dabi's hand around his neck.

Head back in the game, Bakugou smirked, diving straight forward. Both pursuers maneuvered away as he plowed straight through an office building, painlessly tearing through the glass windows and destroying the cubicles inside. There was a spray of debris and dummies as he shot out the other side, a wild grin on his face as he flew straight up. He was having too much fun here. He needed to get a few take downs in before he got distracted again.

Just as he'd hoped, Chicken Legs was flying up after him, a look of unbending determination in his eyes. Even Bakugou had to admit that the guy had guts. They were high above the facility when Chicken Legs actually realized that maybe he couldn't quite keep up with this, beginning to flail and whine in displeasure. Bakugou never let his grin fall. "It really is a shame, Chicken Legs! From what I can tell, you don't have a stand out personality! Just a gimmick that you barely use while you follow a crowd of jerks! How forgettable!"

"Shut up, you-!"

"Also, you know what you normally _don't_ do against a raid boss?"

"Huh?"

"Go in solo!"

And with that, he suddenly blasted himself backwards, his well-toned body mostly accustom to the violent whiplash, and swung back at Chicken Legs so suddenly that he barely even had a chance to react. The resulting explosion wasn't one of his biggest, but it was enough to cause some damage. The harpy's head shot back, his body careening back down towards the ground as Bakugou allowed himself to begin to fall.

As the wind began to pick up around him, Bakugou suddenly realized that Chicken Legs wasn't moving. Did he actually knock the guy out? It was that easy?

Huh. He's not sure how he feels about that.

Shaking his head at the Deku-esque voice in his head demanding that he save the poor guy from falling to his death as quickly as possible, Bakugou launched himself forward and pulled the unconscious hero wannabe out of the air, holding him securely under his arm as he flew towards one of the Ground Beta exits. His landing was sloppy with only one arm, but he did the job regardless, skidding across the ground and unceremoniously dropping his cargo before flying back off into the fray. One down, nine to go. If they're all that easy, this shouldn't take long at all.

He's sure he was only in the air for five seconds before Tentacle Hair tried to ambush him again, her small frame only appearing in his peripheral for a moment before her tentacles came flying up after him. The way he had to twist and contort his body to slip passed her at the speed he was moving was uncomfortable, but not impossible.

Honestly, as much as he hated to admit it at all, this girl was being pretty serious about this whole thing and might have been a possible candidate for a high ranked upcoming hero if she wasn't actually bats*** crazy. And not like his own personal brand of crazy.

No, like, _uncomfortable_ crazy.

He doesn't want to deal with her right now. He'd prefer to fight her on his own terms.

Flying over the suburban area of Ground Beta, Bakugou flipped through the air and fired downward, sending a spray of small explosions over the landscape surrounding Squid Girl. She seemed to panic as houses began to collapse, diving down into one of the buildings and pulling a dummy out of the way of a falling roof in order to save points. He was out of sight before she could even look back up.

* * *

It was only a minute or so later that things started to get interesting.

He came across Knife Fingers on a roof further into the city almost immediately after escaping Tentacle Hair, the idiot all too eager to try and start a fight with him with a manic grin on his face. Bakugou was sure they fought for about thirty seconds before he turned tail and ran. What a wimp.

Irritated that the f***er was running away from a fight that he'd clearly asked for, he chased after him on foot, Knife Fingers cutting some dangerous corners in his attempts to get away and regroup. It was easy for Bakugou to bypass several of his shortcuts by making his own, blasting through wall after wall in his pursuit.

Of course, Knife Fingers would end up getting lucky this time.

What angered him the most out of everything was that he really, truly, honestly didn't see it coming, only felt the impact against his back that knocked him out of the air, and he could feel his blood boiling dangerously just below the surface as he realized that fact, hitting the street with a thud. He was quick to scramble to his feet, eyes darting around and open palms outstretched to either side as he surveyed his surrounding.

The crunch of glass underfoot caught his attention. He spun on his heel, closest hand thrown forward, and his eyes fell onto his newest opponent.

Of course. Of f***ing course. The first person to catch him off guard, the first person to land an actual hit on him, and it just _had_ to be _f***ing Fancy Pants_.

With a hair flip, he smiled at him seductively, waving his fingers at him. It sent shivers down his spine as more glass crunched under his boots. Bakugou ignored the strong feelings of discomfort and held his expression, a dangerous, no nonsense scowl while he held his hand out steadily. Even now, he still had no idea what this guy's quirk was, which was putting him at a disadvantage.

He was at a disadvantage.

_Unacceptable_.

"Yeesh," Fancy Pants grimaced. "Keep making faces like that and you'll get wrinkles."

"Yeah, well, keep showing your face in front of mine and you'll have a lot worse than just some wrinkles."

"Well, aren't you charming."

He suddenly heard movement behind him, a bizarre sound like a mess of wooden blocks being lightly hit together, and he instantly had his other hand up, firing before he even saw his threat. The result was a spray of wood, plastic, and burnt strings as the thing, or _things_ rather, fell to pieces.

Bakugou's brows furrowed. Puppets?

Something slammed into his shoulder with enough force to make him stumble. Vengeful heat roared through his body as he caught himself and faced back towards Fancy Pants, the smuggest look he's ever seen painting his face as he held his hand out and twitched his finger.

The powerful blow against the back of his head actually made his vision blur, though it was red with anger a moment later. He let out a frustrated roar, his arm reeling back and palm crackling with hot, burning energy and swung towards the overconfident a**hat. Fancy Pants, in turn, seemingly reached up and grabbed the open air in front of him.

And suddenly, Bakugou's arm was frozen in place.

There was a single, solitary moment where a dose of panic infiltrated his senses, setting them on fire as he stared in stunned silence at his completely immobile arm, now held in the air by seemingly nothing.

"Oh, what's wrong?" Fancy Pants cooed. "Were you expecting to defeat us so easy?"

Well, yeah actually, and he was still going to, thanks.

He breathed slowly, forcing his pounding heart to calm down and his blood to cool. Moving blindly wasn't going to help, so if he just took a moment to get his bearings, he'd be out of this mess in no time flat. Plus, Fancy Pants over there seemed to be on a particularly high horse, so not only was he also not being careful, but taking him down was going to be that much more satisfying.

Bakugou didn't believe that he was going to lose for even a millisecond.

The wooden clanging sound returned, alerting him to more of those puppet things. He turned to face them, his eyes only slightly widening at the unexpected numbers. There were dozens of them now, all hollow-looking with creepy blank expressions and held up by seemingly invisible strings. They all jittered around, moved by hands that he couldn't see.

Of course, if he hadn't seen _them_, he probably would have connected the dots eventually, but a certain two were nice enough to just give him the answer and save him the trouble.

This was String Hair's quirk.

She sauntered out into the open gracefully, walking like a runaway model with a superiority complex that outshone the sun. She almost reminded him of Uwabami, if she was stupid and more openly selfish. Trailing her was her sister, her skin shining against the afternoon sun and her eyes as dead looking as a real life doll. There was no visible emotion on her face or body language that he could decipher, but he supposed that didn't matter at the moment.

String Hair scoffed. "You're outnumbered, buddy. You seem pretty overconfident for someone who's about to be defeated."

"Defeeeeeeeated..." Barbie droned expressionlessly.

Bakugou couldn't help but smirk. "I'm overconfident? I would have figured it out eventually, but it was really nice of you to reveal both your quirk and your location."

He felt a tight squeeze on his arm. Fancy Pants must be getting annoyed. "Just swarm him, Hitonari. My arm's getting tired."

String Hair smiled. "With pleasure!"

The crowd of puppets leaped at him all at once, their wooden mouths wide open in voiceless screams. If nothing else, he would willingly admit that they were somewhat creepy. Bakugou grinned, swinging his leg upward and uppercutting the first puppet so hard that its head flew clean off. His leg froze as soon as his foot hit the ground.

His grin never left. _Exactly as planned_.

With one swift motion, he grabbed the arm of the next puppet that came within reach, twisting his body around and flinging it behind him at incredible speeds. Fancy Pants shrieked, stumbling back and falling flat on his a** to avoid the incoming projectile sailing over his head. Bakugou let out a devilish laugh of glee, his frozen limbs now freed, and used his momentum to spin back around and fire an explosion that sent a wave of the puppets flying through the air. He barely noticed Barbie fluidly stepping in front of String Hair to shield her from the spray of burning wood flung back at her.

Fancy Pants snarled, his earlier confidence gone with the wind. "H- How?! How did you know that-?!"

"That your quirk is controlling shadows?" Bakugou said smugly. "Well, not _exactly_ that, but I get the idea. Maybe if you hadn't stood around gloating the whole time, I wouldn't have looked around and connected the dots."

"Why you-!" Fancy Pants's hand flew over, his shadow grasping onto the shadow of a box. In one swing, the box's shadow flew across the wall to his left, though now that he could see it, it was easy to leap right over it, the impact knocking several more puppets into the air.

"Watch it!" String Hair shouted.

"Waaaaaatch..."

"Shut up!"

Fancy Pants yelled in frustration, darting towards Bakugou's shadow below him. Bakugou wasn't sure if Fancy Pants could freeze people in the air with his quirk, but he didn't feel like finding out.

With a fire in his eyes, Bakugou shot his hands down. "Stun Grenade!"

The world around him lit up like a fireworks show, Fancy Pants and String Hair shielding their eyes while Barbie just kind of stared somewhere else. Fancy Pants let out a curse as Bakugou propelled himself downward, his boot slamming into Fancy Pants's face with a loud crunch. It was effortless to back flip off of him, watching with smug satisfaction as his boot threw the jerk's head backwards violently, knocking him to the ground. Bakugou stood with well earned confidence as the idiot actually forced himself back to his feet.

"You..." he growled, genuine fury behind his words. "What did you do to my face!?"

Bakugou snerked. "I fixed it for you. You're welcome."

He screeched in rage, immediately running at him like a complete moron with a look in his eyes that just screamed a desire for murder. Bakugou rolled his eyes before letting off another stun grenade, darting forward and swinging his fist into his stomach as hard as he could. He never thought that the sound of gagging could be so beautiful as Fancy Pants practically fell limp against his arm, wheezing.

"That was for using the word 'hideous' incorrectly." Bakugou growled. "Get your eyes checked, loser."

And with that, he threw him off, using an explosion to send him flying. He slammed back first into a building hard enough to leave a dent, falling bonelessly to the ground with nothing but a twitch. Bakugou let out an annoyed _tch_. If these guys ever want to be heroes, they need to learn how to take some punishment.

He heard movement directly behind him, not wooden, and he calmly sidestepped Barbie of all people attempting to attack him from behind. She seemed surprised, a silent 'o' escaping her lips before he turned and closelined her, earning a strangled yelp as she was flipped in the air and onto her back. It almost sounded like a hollow tube falling to the ground.

"So, you think you're tough s***, huh?!" String Hair hissed, surrounded by an army of creepy wooden puppets.

"I'm pretty sure I am, yeah." he smirked, eyes burning.

From what he could remember, this was the first time that String Hair seemed nervous, surrounding herself by a sea of puppets in a desperate bid to protect herself. It was like she was trying to shield herself from a bomb with drywall. He simply grinned, slowly approaching the horde with his hands tensed, open palms crackling with energy. The dozens upon dozens of puppets running at him were nothing but toothpicks to him, a single powerful swing of his explosions sending them careening through the air.

"Are these wooden dolls all you can make?" Bakugou scoffed. "Talk about useless!"

"Shut your d*** mouth!" she yelled back. "You're just jealous! Yeah, that's it!"

"Jealous of what?" He was now standing almost directly in front of her. "What could you possibly have that I don't?"

"Everything, you son of a b****!" she screamed, swinging an open palm towards his face. It was a clearly futile effort as he caught her arm, pulling it away as he lifted his own hand and swung, the back of his hand connecting solidly with her cheek. She crumbled to the floor, clutching her reddening cheek as she quickly scrambled back to try and gain some distance.

"You're a monster!" she shot at him. "How dare you! How can you do this with a good conscience, you lunatic!?"

His smile was downright menacing, wild and uncontrolled like a forest fire. "I'm suppose to be playing the villain, remember? And villains aren't all that lenient in the real world. Take it from someone who knows."

She stumbled to her feet, doing everything in her powerful to make distance between them. Despite her clear terror, she held a look of determination, her puppets surrounding her once again. Bakugou could only roll his eyes as he followed.

The feeling of something suddenly pressing against his throat from behind genuinely startled him, an explosion going off on reflex as he grabbed at whatever was grappling onto him and trying to choke him out. String Hair was laughing about something, but it was short-lived as Bakugou ripped the person off of him, watching in confusion as Barbie rolled across the ground, her arm literally detached from her body as it bounced out of her grip. With a startled cry, she lunged for it, and Bakugou suddenly realized that he needed to hurry it up. Any longer and he just might make the same idiotic mistake of giving his opponents time to regroup.

Not a chance.

He jumped back, several of String Hair's Puppets chasing after him as he hopped from wall to wall, building to building, watching in amusement as the number of puppets just kept growing. String Hair could make a dizzying number of these things at once, but they were just so _weak_.

"Where do you think you're going?!" she screamed. "Are you running away?! Are you scared?!"

She was actually losing it.

He'd distanced himself quite a bit from her horde at this point, a sea of wooden toys crawling through the streets of Ground Beta like pests. Bakugou couldn't help but grin. The streets weren't narrow, but they weren't all that broad, either. A powerful explosion would cause some serious damage alongside destroying her little toy soldier army.

Well, since he's playing the bad guy in this scenario, he might as well go a little overboard.

Launching himself back into the air, his hands burned with the power of his quirk, throwing and spinning him around in the air as smoke encircled him. Barbie seemed to stiffen, the most emotion he'd seen from her, before she jumped up, detached arm forgotten, and threw herself on top of her sister in a protective manner. And yet, despite the obvious act of self-sacrifice that was quite strange to see from anyone in this group, he wasn't deterred in the slightest.

Let's see what kind of punishment you can take, Plastic Girl. "Howitzer's..."

String Hair squirmed in her sister's grip, eyes wild. "You maniac! Animal! You're no hero! You're nothing, you-!"

"IMPACT!"

His hands hit a surface, whether it was a puppet or the street was beyond him, and the blast was so loud that it left his own ears ringing. Fire and smoke engulfed his vision, and he reveled in the feeling of intense heat against his face, almost suffocating. The sky practically showered wooden limbs and broken bodies as he sauntered through the flames and rising smoke.

He didn't know what he looked like as his silhouette began to materialize through the smoke, but he heard a terrified gasp as he broke through the surface, a toothy grin and beady red eyes painting a terrifying picture.

And String Hair was on the verge of tears, sitting on the ground covered in soot and hair blown far from her face. He'd never felt such utter glee from a non-villain feeling pure, unadulterated terror towards him in such a long time. He almost missed seeing it in that moment.

Villain face on, he aimed his glowing palm towards her, watching in satisfaction as she shrieked, fighting to get to her feet as she ran as fast as she could towards the nearest exit from Ground Beta. He had to fight to not laugh out loud, his body practically vibrating with excited energy.

He had a feeling he might be enjoying this way too much, but he doubted that anyone really cared this time around.

Dropping his demon smile, he glanced over at the unconscious form of Barbie Doll, left behind by String Hair in her frantic scramble to save herself from a fiery, painful death. Her back was somewhat singed, but nothing too serious. One of her legs had been knocked off of her body as well, stuck in a store window off to the side. There was glass and dummies scattered all over the whole length of the street as he took off running, deciding that it was best to make his leave now. All of that noise was going to attract more of them to him, and he'd rather not be caught by surprise again.

Four down, six to go, and in all honestly, they're making this way too easy. He's curious if any of them will actually be able to present a challenge.

Well, he'll find out sooner or later.

* * *

"Caramel corn, anyone?"

Kaminari and Ashido were the first to start screeching excitedly, the rest of the class lighting up at Rikidou's offered treat. Midoriya couldn't help but smile as Uraraka ran over with the two to be among the first served.

"I made a lot." Rikidou announced. "There's enough for everyone."

"Alright," Tokage smiled. "That's more like it."

"Popcorn!" Tsunotori cheered, joining the slowly growing crowd. "Thank you, Mr. Sugar Man!"

Rikidou smiled happily as Tsunotori got her serving alongside Uraraka, who ran back to her seat and curled up between Midoriya and Iida in a way that had Midoriya trying to hide his face and avoid embarrassing them both.

"This is so clever, Rikidou!" Yaoyorozu praised. "Considering that the natural scent of nitroglycerine is extremely similar to that of caramel, it seems so thematically appropriate!"

Rikidou stared at her blankly for a moment, blinking dumbly at his beaming classmate before shaking his head wildly. "Uh- Yeah, yeah! That was it! Haha! Gotta show my support somehow, am I right?"

Midoriya heard someone snort in response, but no one said anything further. From there, he was almost completely invested in what was happening on screen, Kacchan stretching his arms and back before taking off from what had been a puppet war zone less than a minute ago.

Midoriya was still reeling from the amount of emotions he'd experienced, starting from the moment Kacchan had stopped his little scouting lap around Ground Beta and used a particularly loud explosion upon takeoff. A camera had zoomed in on a plumb of smoke and a flight trail that appeared not even a second later. To Midoriya at least, it was clear bait, the smoke such a dark color in contrast to the buildings around it that it was impossible to miss, and that wasn't even mentioning the volume. From that vantage point, Kacchan probably had a fantastic view of his enemies going their separate ways, which meant that he knew they were split up. Not good for MCH.

Midoriya watched in amazement as the student with a harpy quirk flew after Kacchan. It was exhilarating to watch the way they danced around each other, Kurotori, _yeah, that was his name,_ growing impatient and nervous while Kacchan remained completely confident. In fact, he almost seemed like he was having fun.

Half of the class had either tensed up or let out some sound of surprise when Mizukami's tentacles shot up after them below, like a predator springing a trap on its prey. The fluid motion in which Kacchan slipped passed her looked almost effortless, but Midoriya knew from experience that twisting your body in that fashion could be painful. The speed he was moving probably didn't do him any favors either.

And yet, he easily shook it off, literally swan diving through an office complex as if it were a swimming pool, the spray of glass making several people curl up, and suddenly shooting himself upward so fast that it was like watching a NASA rocket launch. Midoriya found himself feeling bad for the harpy quirk user as he desperately flew up after him. Uraraka had put a hand on her neck in what was probably sympathy as Kacchan almost instantly changed his direction, flying backwards and slamming his palm into Kurotori with a decent sized explosion that earned some strong, vocal reactions from his classmates.

Midoriya felt his own face contort in confusion as they both continued to fall, Kacchan seemingly just as confused. He then launched himself forward, grabbing Kurotori and shakily flying them to the edge of Ground Beta. He dropped what Midoriya suddenly realized was an unconscious body by an exit before almost immediately taking back off.

"Wait, that was it!?" Tetsutetsu had exclaimed. "He was out in one hit!"

"That was literally less than a minute." Jirou commented, watching as Kacchan made another painful maneuver around Mizukami's tentacles. Midoriya was surprised to see that instead of going after her next, he chose to retreat and regroup. An inkling of unexplainable pride had blossomed in his chest.

"It was oddly cathartic, though." Tokoyami mumbled mostly to himself, Shouji patting him on the shoulder. Somewhere on the other side of the room, Midoriya was pretty sure that it was Kuroiro chuckling to himself.

He was already scribbling wildly in his notebook, jotting down points as his classmates discussed MCH's approach to this match among themselves and on screen, Kacchan was fighting Tateno, the knife finger guy. It was true that going after Kacchan alone was a bad move, which was why splitting up confused Midoriya to no end, but that made him curious as to what Kurotori's plan was in the first place. He was obviously fast, being able to keep up with Kacchan like that, and though he wasn't as agile, likely due to his wingspan, he wasn't that far behind. Did the fact that his arms are his wings have an effect on that, rather than being on his back? Maybe the wing density? His weight? And if he could handle that kind of wind resistance, how come Kacchan's explosion took him out so easily? Was that also a case of whiplash? Inertia? What if-

"Deku, you're mumbling."

"Ah!" Midoriya fumbled with his notebook, dropping his pencil. "My bad!"

Uraraka giggled, Midoriya's face heating up as he curled into himself, his notebook clutched against his chest and knees raised up.

"Oh, whoa, wait a minute!" Kirishima's voice suddenly rose above the chatter. "What just happened!?"

Midoriya's head shot up towards the screen, eyes widening as he watched Kacchan scramble to his feet after being knocked out of the air. He only looked slightly scratched up from the rough landing, arms out and palms open as if scanning for his enemy. Whatever had happened, he never saw it, and that made Midoriya's heart squeeze uncomfortably.

He knew he'd pull through, but it was still an unnerving situation.

Midoriya had honestly been impressed with Akasako. Even Midoriya himself had found it difficult to pinpoint what his quirk even was, frantically brainstorming ideas and theories as if that would actually be of any help to Kacchan. Now that the speed of the battle had paused, banter could be heard, Ashido looking especially frustration and about two seconds from screaming at the screen like you would at a character in an action or horror film.

And then the Hitonari sisters made their appearances, which greatly confused Midoriya. From the looks and sounds of things, the string sister's quirk involved the puppets surrounding them, but it seemed like such a perfect ambush quirk. Why would you reveal your position, and your quirk in the process? It wasn't hard to figure it out when he knew almost everyone else's quirk already, but he hadn't known where she was until she showed herself. Such a strange decision.

And it turned out to be their undoing. At first, Kacchan's first attack seemed to make things worse, his leg being held in place like his arm, but Midoriya realized his thought process only a moment later, when he realized what Akasako's quirk was. From the looks of things, he could make 2D shadows interact with the 3D world, the thing that originally knocked Kacchan out of the air being the shadow of a crate. The shadow of Akasako's hand was what was holding Kacchan's arm in place, his other one reaching out for his leg after he'd kicked that puppet's head off.

As it turns out, that was a bait, both of Akasako's hands occupied so that Kacchan could attack without worrying about being stopped. He'd both thrown Akasako back and taken out a large majority of Hitonari's army in one or two fluid motions. Obviously, Kacchan had figured everything out just fine. From there, it was a matter of keeping Akasako away from his shadow, Kacchan using a stun grenade to blind him before dropkicking his face with enough force that Midoriya was impressed that he didn't knock him out.

"You... What did you do to my face!?"

"I fixed it for you. You're welcome."

Ashido and Jirou both let out some kind of victory screech, several 1-B students and Kacchan's friend group all bursting out laughing as Akasako lost his temper, charging at Kacchan as if that was actually a good idea. One more stun grenade and a bullet punch to the stomach later, it was pretty much over.

"That was for using the word 'hideous' incorrectly. Get your eyes checked, loser."

The applause had been deafening, Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero all dragging Ashido into a tight, jovial group hug.

Hitonari had lost her mind after that, uselessly throwing her puppets at him and shouting every insult she could hurl at him. A couple of them found themselves digging under Midoriya's skin and making him squirm, but Kacchan was completely undeterred. Even Midoriya had to admit that Kacchan straight up pimp slapping her was kind of satisfying. He knows that Ashido and Jirou were absolutely losing it.

A Howitzer's Impact might have been a bit much, but Midoriya understood what he was trying to do, a show of dominance rather than a genuine attack against her, and in a way, running away like a coward was more humiliating than being beaten into the ground.

In any case, it had been an absolute massacre. Meanwhile, the rest of them are all here eating some of the best caramel corn that Midoriya's ever had in his entire life and enjoying quite a display.

"Man, I'd been kind of jealous that Bakugou got to be the one to fight them," Tetsutetsu cheered. "But this is too good!"

"I think that's why the teachers chose him alone, even though ten of any of us would be considered fair." Asui mused aloud. "Consider this: What would make a school of heroes look worse? Losing against the same number of people or losing against one? It's like how we were all defeated by Mirio, except that it's someone of their year instead of a third year and their heaviest hitters are there, too, kero."

Sero laughed. "Hey, I'm all for just sitting back and watching Blasty wreck some fools. I'm not even worried. This has been sick!"

Midoriya heard Monoma scoff. "Of course, they would immediately choose someone from class 1-A for this. Anyone from 1-B would do just as well, I tell you!"

"I mean, you're probably right." Tokage said.

"No one said he wasn't." Jirou shrugged. "Anyone from 1-A could probably do it, too, but you know what Bakugou doesn't have that the rest of us do?"

Everyone looked at her questionably while Jirou smirked. "Mercy. I'm willing to bet that all of us in this room would have too much of a heart to fight them like how we'd fight each other, especially when some of them are clearly not at our level and would get absolutely destroyed." She pointed at the screen. "Meanwhile, he literally just went at a girl with some puppets for a quirk with a f***ing Howitzer's Impact."

"She makes a valid point." Tokage said with a shrug, though Monoma only scoffed.

Midoriya simply stuffed his mouth with caramel corn and pulled out his notebook again, waiting for the next encounter. He found it curious that through the entire simulation so far, he hadn't seen Shintani or Yano once.

* * *

It was literally seconds after takeoff that Bakugou spotted Beta trying to spy on him. He wasn't sure what good that would do him, but that's what he seemed to be doing.

Beta hurriedly disappeared behind a building, a floating gray platform fading away just behind him. Bakugou was quick to give chase, Beta's face morphing into that of terror as soon as he looked back and realized he was being followed. He had to admit, out of every weirdo he'd had the displeasure of meeting from this class, Beta confused him the most, constantly flip-flopping between a peacekeeper and a catalyst.

Wasn't this the f*** that tripped Deku down the stairs? Yeah, he thinks it's this guy. Considering that you could easily die from breaking your neck, he's not even sure he'd have done that back in middle school. That would have destroyed his permanent record, had it gone wrong. He was a bully, not a murderer.

Still not good, but easier to live with.

Running along the high building rooftops after him, Bakugou had to try really hard not to laugh as Beta ducked around different buildings and dove across alleys as fast as he could, as if that would help him whatsoever. He could only use his quirk to walk across open spaces. He wasn't even that fast.

And he looked absolutely terrified, like he finally realized his mistakes, or at least what kind of people he was antagonizing from the beginning, and was running from the consequences as if his very life depended on it, a personification of karma just a few steps behind him and out for blood. The feral grin splitting his own face in two probably looked demonic.

He was pretty sure he'd landed on the roof of a cafe of some kind when he felt the entire building lurch forward and almost throw him to the ground.

"Oi!" Beta suddenly shouted, looking over the edge of the building across the street from him with a panicked expression. "What the h*** do you think you're doing?!"

The building shook again, and Bakugou ran to the edge and peered over. What he found was what looked like a bipedal wolf, with the exact head of one, giant hands with claws the size of his tusk-like teeth, and so much fur that his hero costume was partially hidden under all of it. Judging from the color of his fur and the way it wove around his face, Bakugou was pretty sure this was Sideburns.

So, Sideburns is a werewolf, apparently. Fascinating.

"Where is he!?" Sideburns roared, the foundations of the building giving out and forcing Bakugou to jump to the next one before it could topple over.

"Kiga!" Beta screamed. "There are _people_ in there!"

"So _what!?_ They're just toys!"

And with that, the building crumbled to the ground. Bakugou was almost impressed with the show of strength, but at the same time, almost in shock at the display of apathy towards civilians. Bakugou himself didn't have all that much room to talk, but toys or not, at least he didn't _kill_ people. Also, being caught in a building collapse wasn't fun. He and Ashido could tell this pr*** all about that.

The rooftop shifted again, Sideburns tearing at the next roof he'd found himself on, and before Bakugou knew it, he was leaping from building to building as they fell to the ground behind him in his pursuer's rampage. Each collapse behind him both sent shivers down his spine and was music to his ears. The subtle thrill in his veins put a smile on his face.

"Kiga!" Beta continued to scream. "Kiga, _you're killing people!_"

Beta paused, pressing his hand against his ear, and Bakugou suddenly realized that they actually had communication devices. He blinked dumbly at the realization, stunned, almost impressed even, with how uncoordinated they were in that light. Even without that advantage, he and his 'squad' as they loved to call themselves were usually on the same page, depending on his mood. It was the same with Deku, weirdly enough.

"Are you sure?" he heard Beta yell into his device, another building biting the dust as the force field quirk user made his way towards street level. For a moment, Bakugou couldn't help the confusion that painted his face.

And then the roof suddenly fell in.

It happened so fast that he only had time to react after the fact, throwing his momentum forward as the many floors below him succumbed to the increasing weight being dropped on them. With barely any solid ground to stand on, he broke through a window on one of the upper floors. He found himself several stories above a small alleyway, windows shattered and walls eroding and crumbling around him. The air was polluted with the dust of the buildings falling behind him.

Vision compromised and adrenaline running high, he reacted purely on instinct when a shadow flew passed him, sending a small explosion in the direction it disappeared in. It was small, possibly a bird or drone, but the hairs on the back of his head were standing on end because something in his very heart and soul was screaming at him that he'd just flown into a trap.

And then something coiled around his ankle and the first thought that ran through his head was '_f***, I really _should_ have taken out Squid Girl first_'.

He couldn't see anything, and he had absolutely no clue where she was, so rather than firing blindly as the tentacle yanked him downward, he threw his arms over his head, guarding himself to the best of his ability as he was pulled into and thrown through another building, feeling several impacts against his body before he hits a wall back first that didn't give way under his momentum.

He was dizzy from the unexpected whiplash, but not enough to be thrown off of his game. He could make out broken tables and chairs scattered across the room, only one or two dummies with him and a distinct lack of cameras. Obviously, not every nook and cranny in Ground beta could be monitored, and apparently, this was one of those spots. The destroyed furniture made a perfect pathway painting his descent, the wall he'd broken through barely holding up the ceiling above him. To the right of it was a huge counter, surrounded by broken bottles and glasses.

Bakugou's eyes only widened minutely. He was in an old rundown bar. What were the chances?

The tentacle around his ankle disappeared, replaced by two wrapping tightly around his gauntlets. He couldn't help but wonder if he should get them upgraded as he was pulled up to his feet. Maybe some way to slip out of them in emergencies, like when an accident, or even better, a villain, has him pinned and he can just slip his arm through and launch a surprise attack. Maybe a button? Or a switch? Something that he wouldn't hit accidentally, so that they don't suddenly fly off of his arms during a fight. Wouldn't that be something?

Speaking of his gauntlets, he hasn't used them yet. They're full right now.

The floorboards creaked, Bakugou turning his attention from his trapped gauntlets currently forcing his hands above his head to Squid Girl standing in front of him, the smuggest look on her face as she bounced on the balls of her feet. He didn't miss the fact that she was sweating, the air around them slightly warm from the heat radiating off of his body from the constant use of his quirk. He had to fight to not grin.

"You seem pretty confident," she said. "For someone in your position."

Bakugou shrugged. What was it with these guys and commenting on his confidence? Jealous much? "Yeah, well, to be completely honest, you're no real threat to me, so..."

That was actually somewhat of a lie, but _as if_ he'd show any weakness to this whack job. He'd rather cry in front of Deku.

Squid Girl hummed, inching closer to him. "I like that. I think confident guys are really hot."

Oh, wow. Okay, _**f*** that**_.

"And I'll be honest, I'm totally into the whole bad boy thing, too."

_**F*** that in a **_**million**_** ways**_.

He didn't know if he should be relieved or horrified that there are no cameras.

He masked his discomfort, putting on a bored scowl instead. "Hate to break it to you, Splatoon, but I'm not into creeps."

She pouted childishly at that, but she only smiled sweetly and stepped even closer. "So you're hard to get, then?"

She was directly in front of him now, sickening smile, uncomfortable giddiness and suffocating atmosphere. Somewhere in his mind's eye, he was still in a bar, dimly lit, hands encased in front of him and a girl with sharp eyes and matching teeth always hovering around somewhere in the dark, looking over him as if he were her favorite midnight snack.

He involuntarily shivered.

He was pulled out of his haunting memories by the feeling of a tentacle rubbing against his neck and trying to force its way down his shirt. Yeah, no. Absolutely not. F*** that and f*** this b**** in particular. She's about to die within the next five seconds and it's going to be glorious, and he will cherish that moment. He'd gained strong grips on both of his pins, since the idiot didn't bother holding his arms farther apart, and he could already smell the incoming scent of charred seafood.

Using their proximity to his advantage, he threw his leg forward and twisted his foot behind her knees, knocking her forward. He ignored the sick rolling in his stomach as soon as she fell against him, hiding it under a confident, toothy grin.

"This close enough for you?" he growled, yanking both pins from his gauntlets.

The explosion was deafening, sending the ceiling above them flying into the air. The rest of it and the walls around them crumbled to the ground, sunlight streaming through the billowing dust and smoke. Bakugou basked in the familiarity of the rising heat, relishing the sound of coughing and gasping a few feet in front of him.

Squid Girl had been sent to her knees facing away from him, having been blown back by the shock wave. Her entire body was drenched in sweat, causing dust and soot to cling to her damp skin. She gasped against the intense heat, her hair somewhat shriveling up in the uncomfortable atmosphere. She crawled for the nearest exit, her head below the layer of smoke as she coughed.

Bakugou only snorted at her, nonchalantly raising his hand and firing a weak shot at her back, throwing her forward with a scream. "I don't know what it is with you guys and celebrating early, but that's the second time today. Not a good look for you."

He side glanced to the left, hearing wild howling in the distance, before he looked back at the shaking girl curled up on the floor one last time. "Also, do yourself a favor and learn some d*** self control. I should _not_ have to explain why."

And with that, he ran for the hole in the wall, skidding to a halt and looking back for a moment. There were at least two dummies in the room with them, both having somehow missed the majority of the damage. With an amused snerk, he ran over and grabbed both of them, throwing them under his arms and not bothering to watch where he was going as his boot dug into Tentacle Hair's back on the way out.

* * *

"BOOM! We're back in business, baby!"

Aizawa's head snapped back towards the screen at Mic's voice, letting out an aggravated sigh as his student reappeared, two dummies under his arms and his signature smirk on his face.

"Well there he is." Midnight huffed. "Where did he even go? He vanishes for almost a minute and then suddenly, explosion?"

Aizawa hummed, eyes never leaving the screen as Bakugou found Kiga, waving the dummies at him and claiming he had hostages while Kiga just screamed and charged him anyway. Bakugou made sure to drop a dummy as he dodged his attack, watching with sadistic glee as the dummy and that many more of MCH's points were torn to shreds. Aizawa had to fight the corners of his mouth. The kid was actually having fun with this.

"It's more likely than you think." Nezu said coolly, sipping a cup of tea. "Always one step ahead of the enemy. You can all thank me for my genius now."

Midnight and Present Mic both laughed, but Aizawa was too fixated on a small detail on the screen to pay them much attention.

Mizukami, the squid hair girl, stumbled out of the destroyed building that Bakugou had just emerged from, looking like she'd swallowed a grenade, and fell to the ground after only a few steps, practically unmoving. If he remembered correctly, that was the girl that-.

There was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, remembering her interaction with Todoroki. "Nezu."

The principal looked over at him with that usual blank smile. "Yes, Aizawa?"

"Are there any hidden cameras in this particular district?" he asked. "Specifically that building right there."

Nezu tilted his head. "They're not broadcasting, but there should be something recording in there. Why?"

His voice was low as he eyed the unconscious girl. "I want to see that footage."

"May I ask why?"

He chose not to look him in the eye. "From what I already know of that girl, something tells me that she isn't going to be allowed a hero's license, and that I'm going to have something to do with it."

"Oh? And how will you achieve this?"

"Don't worry about it."

Nezu simply shrugged, taking another sip of his tea as Mic nearly burst out laughing at Bakugou treating his match with Kiga like a bull fight, using the dummy as the cape and jumping out of the way just in time. "Why is he doing that?! I thought he was the no nonsense type!"

"He's toying with him on purpose." Aizawa drawled, watching as Kiga drove himself right through a building. "He's aggravating him by acting as if he's not taking him seriously, something that would make Bakugou himself just as angry, were their roles reversed."

"It's a legitimate strategy." Nezu spoke into his cup. "Keep his enemy from thinking straight while causing damage in the process. This will definitely hurt MCH's score severely."

"Also entertaining." Mic giggled. On screen, Kiga finally destroyed the other dummy, snarling as Bakugou smirked darkly, gesturing for him to come at him. "And also, this Kiga kid? He ain't getting a license either."

"Nope." Nezu agreed.

"Not a chance in h***." Midnight added.

"I would rather die than see that happen." Aizawa said matter-of-factly.

Kiga ran at Bakugou with absolutely no self-preservation warning him that maybe, just maybe, that was a bad idea. Bakugou positioned himself for an AP shot, but aimed down at the last second, sending a spray of cement and dust into the air as the shock wave threw Kiga flat on his back. Quickly, Bakugou jumped on top of him, pressing his hand against the werewolf's face and setting off a massive explosion that cracked the asphalt under them.

Aizawa grinned as Bakugou stood up, stepping away as Kiga weakly swatted at him. After distancing himself several feet and a disinterested lookover, he wordlessly sent another AP shot next to him, hurling him into another building. Present Mic and Midnight couldn't help but laugh out loud while Nezu just looked smug.

"Hey," Mic laughed. "You think I could convince Bakugou to guest star on my radio show after this?"

"No," Aizawa responded bluntly. "But I won't stop you from trying."

Present Mic only laughed harder, Midnight now rolling her eyes while Nezu finished his tea. Aizawa glanced at the timer and smirked. At this rate, this match will be over in less than fifteen minutes.

* * *

Turning away from the smoldering remains of Sideburns with his hands on his hips, Bakugou looked up at the city skyline in annoyance. Beta had already fled like a coward.

He kicked a pebble down the street, watching it skid and bounce against the rocky, uneven asphalt before letting out a long sigh. The most irritating part about this was that the more of them he defeated, the less likely it was that he'd just stumble upon another one, and now they were getting skittish.

And above everything else, Muted Red hadn't made a single appearance yet, let alone a move. It actually amazed him how dumb that was. When he'd come into this thing, he'd been expecting to fight them all at once. Maybe if they hadn't all run off and done their own thing, they would have stood a better chance and wouldn't have completely humiliated themselves and their school so completely. He didn't even realize that they had communication devices, they've been so disorganized.

Idiots. All of them.

Well, okay, Doe Eyes is _okay_, he supposes, but he is not above saying that she isn't hero material.

With a long sigh, he looked out over the city, preparing to take off and find the rest of the cowards when he barely noticed movement to his left fast enough to lean out of the way.

The plastic arm almost hit the tip of his nose and bounced off of the street and onto the sidewalk uselessly, a dull, hollow sound against the broken concrete. Bakugou couldn't help but stare at it in confusion, chancing a glance in the direction it came from with a raised eyebrow.

Thinking back, Bakugou doesn't think that he ever saw Barbie by herself, always following after her absolute b**** of a sister like a dog on a leash. No emotion, no remorse. Just a dead, blank expression, practically a corpse made of plastic that seemed to thrive in someone else's shadow. Seeing her now, still singed and somehow standing after being a little too close to his Howitzer's Impact and her eyes shining for the first time that he knows of, he's starting to wonder what this girl's deal even is.

Not that he particularly cares, but the question is still there.

Without prompt, she charged him, Bakugou easily sidestepping her sloppy punch. She swung around again, eyes moving across his form and her posture improving as she went, and he dodged and weaved as she continued to attempt to strike him with her one hand or her kicks.

There was something in her eyes now, something that had never been there before, that was catching his attention. With another sidestep and a light push, she was on the ground, quickly pushing herself to her feet and turning to attack again when he lifted his glowing hand at her as a silent threat. She seemed to get it, stopping to think about her options before taking a few steps back, her face the most expressive that he'd ever seen from her.

She looked frustrated.

Despite her lax posture, her hand was still in a tight fist, feet squared apart. She remained silent, simply watching him and quickly glancing at his outstretched hand every so often. Watching her now, every sign pointed to her wanting a fight.

"You're serious?" he asked incredulously, brows furrowed questioningly.

Barbie Doll, with a deep breath, raised her fist, her face set in a determined scowl. "Serious..."

He eyed her carefully, scrutinizing her stance and face before he let out a long sigh, stepping off to the side where her arm had been thrown to. It must have been the one that she'd lost when she jumped him during his fight with String hair, since it seemed less damaged than the rest of her limbs, black with soot and scratched up from scraping against rocks and glass.

He realized how light it was when he picked it up, barely anything in his grip. He unceremoniously tossed it to her feet, returning to his spot in front of her with a dangerous snarl. If she wanted a fight, he'd give her a fight, and she better not regret it, because she's bringing it upon herself.

She seemed to understand, picking her arm up and popping it back into place like it was nothing. She winced only slightly, but it was barely noticeable as she flexed her fingers and rolled her shoulder. With raised eyebrows, Bakugou just accepted it, squaring his feet and raising his fists to face height for a serious all out fist fight. Looking over his form, she wordlessly copied his stance almost perfectly, face set back into its uncharacteristically determined scowl that she seemed to have just discovered.

He moved first, surprising her with his speed and nailing her in the face. It felt odd, feeling his fist collide with plastic and not have it splinter or crack under his knuckles. Perhaps this plastic shell of hers was stronger than it looked. Whatever the case, the hit didn't throw her off as much as it should have, enough of her wits together to dodge his next jab with practiced ease, as if she hadn't only seen him dodge the same way a couple times less than a minute ago, and threw a punch as hard as she could into his midsection.

And there was the problem. She was light, almost as if she was completely hollow. The girl could probably be blown away in a wind storm. There was just no weight behind her swing.

He barely even felt it.

A smack from his gauntlet and she was easily thrown to the side like a toy, rolling across the ground a slamming against a building with that light plastic tube noise. And yet, Barbie Doll actually scrambled back to her feet, yanking her arm back off and stomping on a small slab of rock to throw a few large pebbles in the air. With practiced precision, she flipped her arm around so that she was holding her own hand and swung it like a bat, sending the rocks flying back at him.

They were small, most of them easily blocked by his gauntlets alone, but he didn't miss the scratch now lightly bleeding on his cheek.

He shot an explosion at her, her light body easily launched into the air from the force of it. What he didn't expect was for her to be able to redirect herself, calculating and moving just in time to be in a position where she could use the momentum from his own explosion to fly at him instead of away. She swung her detached arm down at him like an ax, barely nicking his ear.

The problem was that she was now wide open, receiving a powerful uppercut to the jaw. Of course, Barbie seemed to be full of surprises, because he was not expecting her head to just pop off of her body like a bottle rocket.

Distracted by that small moment of _what the f*** did I just see_, she threw her leg up, kicking him in the chin. Unfortunately for her, again, it didn't hurt and there was no weight behind it. She did cleanly dodge his next jab, though, apparently still able to get an idea of where he was in relation to her even though her eyes were now all the way down the street.

She swung her disconnected arm again, Bakugou easily blocking it and knocking it out of her grip. She leaped back, her headless body stepping to the side before charging him again, once again wide open in her assault. It was easy to just curbstomp her in that moment, the power behind his kick apparently strong enough to pop both her other arm and one of her legs out of her body.

And just like that, it was over, her torso with its one leg flailing uselessly without any other appendages to help it get back up. Bakugou sighed loudly, rubbing at his scalp. In all sincerely, he was actually somewhat disappointed.

In a rare show of remorse, Bakugou collected the three detached limbs in one arm and the rest of the body in the other, dragging them over to the lonely head lying sideways on the ground. Her eyes were dead again, but there was a watery glaze over them that shone brightly in the sunlight. He dumped the rest of her body by her wordlessly, deciding it best to leave her here like this. If she can't put herself back together, then she's as good as defeated.

"I'm not..."

Bakugou's eyes snapped to hers, brows above his hairline as she fought for the foreign concept of words. "I... Not a puppet."

Her breath hitched, but no tears fell. "I am...human."

Bakugou couldn't claim to have a single clue what she was talking about, nor could he claim that he cared, but with whatever understanding of normal human interaction he'd picked up over the last several months of his life, he responded anyway. "No one said you weren't."

Nothing in her expression changed, staring off at nothing with far off eyes. Bakugou groaned in irritation. "Listen, I'm not one to throw around words of..._encouragement_ or whatever, but out of every single f*** in your class, from your awful sister to that failure of a class president and even the blonde haired girl, who is somehow a decent human being, you are by far the most qualified I've seen out of the bunch to be a hero. I don't know what that means to you, nor do I care in the slightest, but it had to be said."

He turned away, not bothering to gauge any expression she might have now. "If you want my advice, stop following String Hair around and go be your own d*** person."

He left without looking back.

* * *

This wasn't even fun anymore. Bakugou was ready to just end this for good.

If he had to make a guess, he'd say that that coward Muted Red was hiding somewhere obvious, waiting to confront him himself after he's been 'tired out' by his teammates, whom he basically left on their own to get slaughtered one by one. Four Eyes was a way better leader. _Deku_ was a way better leader. He'd rather let him call the shots any day.

For the sake of being petty, Bakugou made sure to destroy whatever store fronts and crowded areas he came across, smirking as dummies and debris flew through the air and scattered along the streets behind him as he walked. These guys have ticked him off enough for an entire lifetime, so making extra sure to drop their points beyond saving was worth it, even if Sideburns probably already did the job for him.

Before he knew it, he was standing in a city square in Ground Beta, a large, colorful building standing almost directly in front of him and close enough to the nearest exit from Ground Beta that any coward could easily hightail it from here. It was such a cliche location for a final battle, the top floor seemingly built only for viewing purposes as if this was a real city with the need for tourist locations, that there was no way that this wasn't where S***tani was hiding all this time.

In fact, he could see Beta peering through the window at the top from here. He grinned and waved, reveling in sadistic glee as Beta blanched, vanishing from his sight. It was practically a hop, skip and a jump, launching himself into the air and crashing through the giant window in a crouching position that he knew looked just as bada** as he felt doing it.

The slow clapping took the fun out of it, only reminding him of the people he was dealing with. He stood and crossed his arms, glaring at the two boys on the other side of the room. Beta looked rightfully nervous, hands near his face and expression grim while Muted Red stepped forward.

"I'll be honest," Muted Red said. "I didn't expect you to get this far."

"That just goes to show how up your own a** you are." Bakugou responded coolly, his hands itching for a fight. He couldn't even remember the last time he wanted to sock someone in the jaw so badly.

Muted let out a _tch_. "Cocky as always. Arrogant with no self-control, just like the kid I saw at the U.A. sports festival."

Bakugou wordlessly shot an explosion at him, watching with a bored resting b**** face as Beta stepped in front of him and blocked it with his force field. Surprisingly, it seemed to be an effective move.

"My point exactly." Muted said with a shrug. "Only a true villain could manifest such murderous intent."

"I'm suppose to be playing the villain, you f***," Bakugou snarled. "And I know you're just trying to get a rise out of me."

Muted ignored him. "Maybe you _should_ have stayed with the league."

Bakugou clenched his teeth dangerously, canines showing and eyes practically glowing with ferocity. He held his tongue, not willing to give him the satisfaction, and began to step forward, hands crackling with blistering hot energy.

And Muted Red grinned. "This is the end. _NOW!_"

"_I'm sorry!_"

Bakugou's eyes widened at the sound of Doe Eyes's voice, gaze whipping around in time to see a glaring light nearly blinding him. He hissed, covering his eyes and turning away from the gates of heaven opening up in front of him and shining directly in his face like a spotlight on high. His entire world, even behind his eyelids, was bathed in white.

"Rikiya, go!" Muted Red yelled, two pairs of footsteps scattering to opposite sides of the room. Bakugou didn't know what they were planning to do next, but he wasn't keen on taking his chances and waiting to find out.

He knew where Doe Eyes was, but she was close to a window, so firing an explosion at her could easily send her flying out the window and to her death, and blindly running at her might not help either since even though he couldn't see, and the other two probably couldn't either, she could.

He didn't know how much more light her eyes could handle compared to normal, but he had a feeling that she had a limit.

_"I don't always have the best control over it. My emotions always get the better of me, you know?" _

Two could play at this game.

Slightly adjusting his mask to cover his eyes, he stepped back, away from where he'd heard footsteps last, and threw his hands forward. "_Stun Grenade!_"

Even with his mask covering his eyes, the world was blinding, Doe Eyes's quirk amplifying the light from his attack to impossible levels. All three opponents let out shouts and expletives of pain, Doe Eyes sounding muffled against the hands likely covering her face. In an instant, Bakugou leaped forward, elbow out in order to maintain momentum despite not knowing Doe Eyes's exact distance from him.

He collided with her stomach, a pained gasp escaping her lips as she shot backwards, back hitting the wall as she collapsed to the ground in a heap.

And just like that, the lights went down. Bakugou put his mask back on straight, his vision spotty from the assault of light leaving him almost completely blinded. From what he could see, Doe Eyes was on the ground, unmoving. He honestly wasn't surprised that she went down so easily, as uninspired as she was as a hero.

He hoped for everyone's sake that she wasn't forced into it in the end.

Vision returning to normal, Bakugou couldn't help but love the look of frustration and anger on Muted Red's face, like he'd thought that his plan was foolproof and was about to have a tantrum like a spoiled brat who wasn't given a bike in the exact color he wanted.

"D***it." Beta muttered, rubbing at his bleary eyes while trying to gain as much distance from Bakugou as possible. At least it could be said that he had a semblance of common sense.

Muted Red grinned.

Bakugou wasn't sure why his mind suddenly zoned in on that, but his adrenaline spiked when he felt an impact against his shoulder, a sudden cold sensation washing over it. He winced at the sharp pain that followed, his hand reaching back and feeling three small metal objects buried in his flesh.

With an annoyed growl, he glanced behind him, eyes landing on a figure on the roof of the building next door, and suddenly realized that he'd actually forgotten one. He'd _actually forgotten_ about Knife Fingers, with his wild, crazed grin, and apparently he could detach and shoot those things from his hands like a f***ing skink's tail.

Not that it mattered. It was only a mild distraction.

He didn't know if the guy had actually believed that a couple needles stuck into his skin could stop him, but Beta must have suddenly had a surge of confidence, rounding on him with a small slab of concrete and his shield out in front of him. It was embarrassingly easy to swing around and catch his arm mid-swing, eyes wild and grin feral as Beta seemed to realize his mistake a moment too late.

Backed by the power of his explosions, Bakugou's fist plowed right through the shield, colliding with Beta's face hard enough to break his nose and knock out a tooth or two as he bounced across the floor and skidded to a stop, his face a bloody mess.

Within the next second, Bakugou had already turned, hands positioned for an AP shot as Knife Fingers seemed to realize the danger he was in and turned to run for it. Bakugou's aim held true, his shot exploding the edge of the building and the shock wave sending the idiot flying into the air. From the looks of it, Knife Fingers's head slammed into the staircase door to and from the roof hard enough to knock him out.

Two down in three seconds flat. He just couldn't help the s***-eating grin that took over his face.

The footsteps behind him set his blood on fire. He spun around so fast that he even surprised himself, grabbing Muted Red's outstretched arm and jamming his knee into his stomach. The sound of gagging was literally music to his ears at this point as Muted stumbled back, clutching his stomach in pain.

"You wanted a fight, didn't you?" Bakugou taunted, leaning forward with his arms outstretched. "What do you think you're even doing? Come on! Hit me!"

The look of genuine anger painting S***tani's face was beautiful as he tore at him. Fists clenched, Muted swung at him with admittedly decent posture, barely nicking Bakugou's cheek and taking a knee to the chin. Bakugou then slammed his gauntlet into his side, sending him rolling on the ground before regaining his stance and jumping up with practiced speed.

Muted spat to the side, his expression set in a determined scowl and hair hanging over his face. Bakugou barely noticed the distant sound of ringing as Muted stood back up, stance squared in preparation for a real fight. Bakugou somehow doubted that this would last very long.

The ringing hit a crescendo and suddenly, Bakugou was nearly deaf.

He cringed harshly at the sound suddenly making his headache from that morning flair up with a vengeance. His vision slightly blurred as he covered his ears, slightly stumbling as he stepped back. Whatever was happening right now, everything was hurting and the ringing was _so loud_.

He didn't miss the movement in front of him, blocking the first punch that came at him and dodging the second, but the third came through, striking his temple hard enough to make his vision go spotty for a moment. In a necessary bid to gain some distance, Bakugou jumped back, aiming an explosion almost directly at his feet. It was enough to both send him skidding backwards on his feet and throw Muted into the wall behind him.

Hand on his forehead, Bakugou exhaled slowly, his head pounding and ears still ringing. He couldn't exactly place what was happening, but he didn't give a d***. This would only be a minor inconvenience. He'd make sure of it.

* * *

Kirishima's eyes widened. "Something's wrong."

Looks of concern were exchanged across the room as Bakugou seemed to stumble, clutching his head and wincing in pain. Kaminari, Sero, and Ashido were all standing when Shintani actually got a really decent hit in, forcing Bakugou to make some distance between them.

"What's going on?" Kaminari demanded. "This came out of nowhere!"

Jirou grimaced. "Is he having a migraine or something? Maybe from Yano's light?"

"Has Bakugou ever been prone to migraines, Midoriya?" Iida asked worriedly.

Midoriya's brows were deeply furrowed as he scrutinized the scene before him. "No. Not that I'm aware of."

The freckled boy fumbled with his notebook, skimming through pages with a set face. "None of them have any quirks that could cause something like this, unless Yano really did trigger a migraine, but I somehow don't feel like that's the case."

"I do hope he's alright." Yaoyorozu thought aloud. "He looks like he's in a lot of pain."

"And the fact that he's showing it is a really bad sign." Jirou added.

Kirishima bit his lip, watching anxiously as Bakugou collected himself and prepared to continue the fight anyway, whatever was happening to him of little concern in his mind. Several of his classmates were on the edge of their seats in anticipation.

And then the silence that fell over them was broken by a notebook loudly hitting the floor.

"Deku?" Uraraka asked carefully, all heads turning towards him and his silent, stunned look, almost blank in expression, like he'd just had an epiphany.

"Midoriya, are you alright?" Iida questioned, Todoroki and Asui leaning over to see for themselves.

"I..." Midoriya mumbled staring up at the screen in shock.

And then his expression shifted into anger.

Uraraka and Iida both leaned back in surprise, others around them showing open concern as Midoriya suddenly shot up from his seat, leaping over several rows of chairs and sprinting for the exit despite the shouts behind him.

Kirishima and Uraraka were the first to react, chasing after him out into the hallway as he ran off. Kirishima got there first. "Midoriya! What's wrong?! What's going on!?"

Midoriya barely stopped as he turned the corner. "No time to explain! I need to see Aizawa-sensei right now!"

He was gone before they could question him any further.

* * *

As much as Bakugou absolutely hated giving Muted any credit whatsoever, he really wasn't that bad of a fighter.

With whatever was going on with his head, setting off explosions was slowly becoming more and more painful, which was giving Muted a huge advantage as well. Without his quirk, it was down to hand to hand combat, Muted throwing well aimed punches and kicks that were slowly becoming harder to dodge as time went on.

Unfortunately for him, Bakugou was just better.

Using his gauntlets to block his attacks, Bakugou nailed Muted with a roundhouse kick to his side. It only took a moment for Muted to regain his balance, grabbing a fallen pole from the ground in a fluid motion and nearly beaming him in the head with it. The fast, whip-like movements Bakugou was doing to avoid all of Muted's jabs and swings were making his head spin, but he just grit his teeth and bore it, reaching out and grabbing the pole mid-swing.

He could already hear the sounds of bubbling molten metal before he yanked the pole back and let go, throwing Muted towards him, and curbstomped him in the chest as hard as he could. Ignoring how the now melted pole sunk right through the floor like Ashido's acid, he focused on not giving Muted a chance to breathe as he back flipped away. Muted landed smoothly, kicking up a wave of dust in an attempt to blind him. Bakugou simply leaped to the side, charging him from a different angle. Muted attempted to kick him, but Bakugou easily caught his leg and threw him to the ground.

It really was a shame that Muted rolled out of the way of his fist slamming into the floor, but blocking Muted's next punch and uppercutting him in the jaw felt amazing. He wasn't sure what came over him in the next moment, but he'd only remembered seeing it done somewhere before. Latching onto Muted's arm before he got any distance, he spun around and yanked him forward, flipping him over his body and slamming his back into the floor with a resounding, satisfying crash.

Wait, wasn't that the move that Deku used on him in their first heroics exercise? S***.

Muted was back on his feet almost instantly, but not fast enough to avoid a punch to the gut and a followup to the face, earning a sickening crunch as soon as it collided with his nose. That was two broken noses now. Such a beautiful sound.

Bakugou faintly realized that the ringing stopped.

Muted clutched his bleeding nose in pain, his face scrunching up before his eyes fell back on Bakugou in genuine, seething rage. "You think you've bested me?"

"Well, yeah, actually." Bakugou retorted with a grin. Muted swung at him again, Bakugou easily blocking it with his gauntlet. "Just accept it, S***tani. You've lost."

Muted Red's eyes were wide with anger. "Like _h***_ I'm losing to a _villain_!"

"Neither am I."

There was a moment of silence, Muted doing everything in his power to keep himself under control. Bakugou couldn't see his eyes, but he was shaking, open disbelief on his shadowed face.

And then he smiled. "Okay, then. Let's end this."

There was a sizzling, bubbling sound, and suddenly, all of Bakugou instincts were on fire. The world opened up to him, every sound and sight in his vicinity clearing and screaming at him. The hair on the back of his neck was standing on end and his body was filled to the brim with nervous energy, twitching, convulsing, fidgeting.

It hit him a moment later, exactly what was happening. Muted's quirk, the placement of his hand, the bubbling sound, his gauntlet.

Bakugou was in his winter costume. It was warmer, causing him to sweat more. His gauntlet wasn't completely full, but there was a decent amount of nitroglycerine in there.

_The outer shell of his gauntlet is __**melting**_.

"ARE YOU _F***ING INSANE!?_" Bakugou screamed, both stunned and almost impressed at such a reckless act. He immediately jumped back, throwing Muted off balance in the process, and tore off his gauntlet. He could already smell caramel by the time he turned towards the windows, away from the other two MCH kids unconscious in the room, and threw it as hard as he could.

It was barely passed the broken window panels when it exploded.

The light was blindly, as if Doe Eyes had pulled herself from unconsciousness and used her quirk again. Muted shouted in surprise, as if he hadn't realized that setting off nitroglycerine was a bad idea, and dove back as part of the ceiling came crashing down on top of them.

The crashing became louder, and the building rumbled dangerously. From the sounds of it, the ceiling hit the spot on the floor where Muted's melted pole ate through hard enough to brake through, causing the floor to start falling apart under them. Bakugou felt a spike of fear shoot through his chest, his hand flying to his stomach on reflex as the floor shook dangerously.

"Look what you've done!" he heard Muted shriek at him, but he couldn't have possibly cared less as the floor finally caved in.

The last thing he saw was the out cold forms of Beta and Doe Eyes before they were all falling.

* * *

Ashido _screamed_.

Jirou wasn't quite sure what she was doing, but she knew better than to just let Ashido run off and suffer by herself. It was an automatic response, grabbing Ashido's arm and pulling her into the tightest hug she could manage.

"Hey," Jirou tried. "I'm sure he's fine. He's tough."

"But- But-."

"It won't be like then." Yaomomo suddenly appeared, joining in their hug. "Even if he's not okay, our teachers will save them. It's okay. You'll see."

Kaminari and Sero were there a moment later, joining their impromptu group hug as images seemed to flash across Ashido's eyes, memories that Jirou both wished she could see and was grateful that she never would. Kirishima, Uraraka, Iida, and Todoroki were all at their feet, ready to screw the rules and book it for Ground Beta if they deemed it necessary.

And Jirou could do nothing but calm herself with her own heartbeat, an unyielding bass in her chest for her to follow, breathe to and tap along with. Everything would be fine. Everything was just fine.

The lack of genuine uncertainty in her proclamation helped to put her at ease.

* * *

"_Bakugou. Bakugou, can you hear me? This is Aizawa. I need a status report now._"

"F***ing h***..." Bakugou groaned, pushing himself up from the dusty floor. From the sounds of it, the building was still falling, so he must have only been out for a few seconds. He lifted his hand to his communication device. "Yeah, I'm here."

Bakugou ignored the relieved sigh that came through and continued on. "D*** idiot boiled my gauntlet. I tried to get rid of it, but it didn't get quite far enough."

"_Nevermind that. Are you alright?_"

Bakugou stood, arching his back and testing his limbs. Despite the soreness, nothing seemed broken and the only blood he could find was from a shallow cut on his side and the puncture wounds on his shoulder from Knife Fingers's attack. "I'm fine. From the looks of it, I only fell a few floors."

Another sigh. "_Good. In any case, Shintani is currently fleeing the sight and heading for the nearest Ground Beta exit. You've won, 10-0._"

Bakugou grinned, a knowing look in his eyes. "Did you expect anything less?"

"_You have enough self-confidence. You don't need me to inflate your ego anymore._" Bakugou rolled his eyes and snorted. "_Can you get out on your own?_"

"Shouldn't be a problem." Bakugou responded coolly, looking over the edge of the ledge that he'd been lucky enough to land on. He could see about three to four floors above him and several below. Looking back up, his brows suddenly furrowed. "Is S***tani the only one you saw get out?"

"_We haven't seen Yano or Rikiya leave the premises, no._" Aizawa responded.

Bakugou's body was still practically vibrating with fidgety energy. "So, wait, you're telling me that he just left his teammates to die? Not even I do that!"

Aizawa seemingly ignored his comment. "_We're sending paramedics over there now. If you are able to find and evacuate them yourself, please do so._"

"Yeah, sure. And hey, can you let the others know I'm okay? I don't need Ashido losing her s***, and I'd rather not get jumped by a crowd of morons as soon as this is all over."

"_I will, but I can't make any promises about any of that._"

"Right..." he muttered, scanning the destroyed floors before him. It wasn't difficult to climb his way down, as precariously balanced as a lot of the rubble was. There was smoke beginning to flow through the openings, slowly becoming thicker as he climbed lower and lower, each floor being more intact than the last and trapping it.

"Lots of smoke. I think there's a fire." Bakugou spoke through the device. "Send someone to take care of that, too."

Midnight's voice was the one that came through. "_Understood._"

There was a groan to his right, debris shifting as Bakugou carefully made his way over, crossing dangerously unstable ground. He could barely see Beta's form in the storm of dust, but he recognized his boring appearance regardless, his tired voice calling for help.

"Chill out, Beta." Bakugou responded, ignoring the way Beta's body tensed harshly. "I'm gonna get you outta here."

He seemed to relax somewhat as Bakugou pulled debris off of him. His right leg looked broken and his head was bleeding, but he was alive and breathing, so good for him. Muted won't be slammed for his buddy dying.

"Keep your eyes open, and hold your shirt over your nose." Bakugou demanded as he put him over his shoulder. "Medics are probably already waiting outside."

Beta hummed in understanding as Bakugou continued his careful descent. Beta balanced on his shoulder, Bakugou pulled the fabric around his neck over his own nose as he found himself in the midst of the fire creating all the smoke. It was hot, hotter than even he was used to, and his eyes burned from the heat and smoke invading them. He could hear Beta coughing.

He wasn't expecting to find Doe Eyes so easily, but there she was at the bottom floor, somehow having miraculously ridden down with the rubble in a way that didn't result in instant death. He ignored the way his shoulders felt light at the realization, and he swallowed the festering dread in his stomach when he realized that she was up too high on the pile of rubble, right in the smoke where breathing was near impossible.

Inching up onto the pile to avoid jostling Beta, Bakugou carefully reached for Doe Eyes, pulling her still form close enough to collect her under his arm and pull her away from a fiery death. The ground was rocky and uneven, forcing Bakugou to move through slowly in order to avoid tripping and causing more injuries that Muted's _stupid_ move has already.

Apparently, luck was on his side for once in his life, the front entrance of the building still being accessible and allowing for an easy exit. He was blinded for the third time that day, squinting at the sunlight assaulting his vision, and eventually made his way away from the slowly crumbling building. He couldn't see any paramedics, so they obvious haven't arrived yet. He'd been hoping that they'd be faster.

Setting Doe Eyes on the ground first, Bakugou shifted to lay Beta down so he could stretch his own sore shoulders and wait for medics to take care of the rest. Beta coughed, groaning in pain as he clutched his head.

Doe Eyes was coughing, and it didn't sound good.

"I said keep your eyes open." Bakugou snarled, Beta flinching as he pried his eyes back open.

"Can Yano breathe?" Beta asked drearily, slightly catching Bakugou off guard. His eyes fell back on her still form, limp against the ground. The fact that she stopping coughing was sending alarm bells going off in his head.

Silently, he rolled her over, fingers shoved against her neck and face by her mouth. Exactly what he remembered being told. He could feel a pulse. There was a heartbeat and blood was circulating. That was a good thing.

He didn't think she was breathing, though.

That's...not good.

With a grimace, he looked around again, seething at the distinct lack of medics in the vicinity. They were taking too long.

F***, he's gonna have to do this himself.

_ "I want you to teach me CPR." _

_ Kirishima had jumped at his statement, long, loose hair tied back and displaying his stunned expression perfectly. Homework forgotten, he blinked at him dumbly. "Uh... What?" _

_ "Did I stutter?" _

_ "Sorry, I just..." Kirishima rubbed at his scalp. "I wasn't expecting that is all. That kinda came out of nowhere." _

_ "Okay," Bakugou said. "So, teach me." _

_ "I..." Kirishima watched him with a look that Bakugou couldn't quite decipher. "Uh, why? We have classes on it." _

_ "Yeah, but it's still basic. I want to know everything." _

_ "I mean, alright, if you want me to." _

_ "I _do_." _

_ "Can I ask why?" _

_ Bakugou scowled at him. "Do I need a reason? I'm training to be a d*** hero, idiot." _

_ By the look Kirishima was giving him, he knew there was more to it. That didn't mean he needed to know the number of times he'd wondered what would have happened if their roles had been reversed that day, when the earth had swallowed him whole. He didn't need to know that it wasn't just Kirishima that he wondered about, either. _

_ But Kirishima didn't question him. He only smiled and accepted it. "I guess you're right." _

_ He supposed that that was one of his favorite things about Kirishima Eijirou. _

He was really glad he asked, er, demanded.

Bakugou ultimately decided that compressions in this situation could be more detrimental than not. Her heart was still beating and he didn't know the extent of her injuries. For all he knew, he could end up shoving a rib into one of her lungs.

So he made sure she was flat on her back and tilted her head, plugging her nose and blowing air into her lungs. Her lips tasted like soot.

Ignoring any sound that came from Beta, Bakugou went between checking her breathing and breathing for her. This went for what he assumed was less than a minute before she started coughing, her voice hoarse and clogged. Bakugou immediately rolled her to her side, grimacing as she coughed and hacked, forcing air to go into her lungs and keep her alive.

It didn't last as long as he would have liked. Soon enough, she couldn't breathe again, forcing him to go right back to it, blowing air into her lungs.

Because he was a hero, d***it, and heroes save to win.

_"And there's the problem. You're getting better at it, but rescue's still really important in heroics. It's kind of the point even." _

Yeah, Sero. He gets it.

He got her breathing again by the time medics finally arrived, Recovery Girl hot on their heels. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Bakugou finally stood, stretched his tired limbs, and turned towards the nearest Ground Beta exit. His injuries weren't that bad and he'd done his job here. All that was left to do now was acknowledge his victory.

And maybe rub it in a few faces.

* * *

Of all the things that Bakugou expected to walk in on, he was not expecting All Might of all people practically in a screaming match with Nurse Dumba** while Aizawa and Nezu just watched in amusement. Deku was also there for some reason.

"_You!_" Dumba** suddenly screeched, pointing her finger dangerously at Bakugou. "You tried to kill my students, you maniac!"

"The h*** are you talking about?" Bakugou questioned incredulously. He glanced at Aizawa. "What's her problem?"

"I've been asking myself that question for the last decade or so." Aizawa responded, rolling his eyes.

"Calm down, Tinnitus!" All Might practically demanded. "You are being hysterical and your arguments have no merit! Please, stand down!"

"What do you _mean_ no merit! That kid's a demon!" she screamed, and deflated or not, Bakugou was impressed that she had the gall to yell at _All Might_ at all. "Kurotori almost fell to his death! The Hitonaris are both traumatized for life! Tateno and Rikiya were concussed! And don't even get me started on Yano! You are literally housing a villain right in your very walls and no one's batting an eye! A killer in the making! Ship him off to Tartarus or so help me, I will reveal this institution for what it is!"

Bakugou felt something ugly twisting in his stomach, but he buried it, because he refused to let some wannabe hero's opinion get to him.

All Might, his face actually turning red, was about to retort when Nezu cleared his throat. "If I may offer a rebuttal."

He walked to the center of the room with practiced confidence, a smile on his face. "It was because of Bakugou that Kurotori didn't fall to his death, it was because of Bakugou that Rikiya and Yano didn't burn alive, and it was because of Bakugou that Yano can breathe again, in case you weren't watching that fantastic performance just now. In the case of Tateno, there was no telling where he would have landed, but if he'd wanted to, Bakugou could have launched him off of the building, but he didn't. He used the necessary amount of force. He didn't actually hit either Hitonari head on with that attack of his, he didn't use that much power to knock out Akasako, and the particular force that he used against both Kiga and Mizukami was justified. In the end, the only person who endangered anyone's life was Shintani."

"But-!"

"You have no argument. I see no evidence of excessive force. Only of MCH's poor teaching skills and excessive leniency. Bakugou was given a role to play and he followed through. Meanwhile, the ease of defeat and the amount of abandonment and cowardice that I saw from your students was just embarrassing. I'm sure that all of Musutafu would agree with me."

Nurse Dumba**'s face was turning purple. She glared at Aizawa. "You set me up for this, you son of a b****."

"You agreed to my terms." Aizawa said coolly. "Theoretically, ten heroes in training should be able to beat one. This only proves that the Musutafu Conservatory for Heroics has no merit. _You_ have no merit, just like your argument."

"It really was a poor showing." Nezu sighed. "You even cheated and loss so miserably."

Bakugou raised an eyebrow at that while Nurse Dumba** blanched. Aizawa smiled his weird a** smile. "Problem Child, if you would."

Deku, expression mostly blank with a hint of disappointment, pulled out one of his notebooks and skimmed to a particular page. "Civilian name: Kyoya Inami. Hero name: Tinnitus. Quirk: Tinnitus. She can cause ringing in her opponents' ears, and the closer she is, the louder it gets. Her range is incredible, as the range where she can only cause a light ringing is approximately half the distance that the human eye can see before it is affected by the curvature of the earth, which suggests that her range is estimated at seven miles. Within one hundred meters, her quirk can cause mild to severe migraines. Within twenty five meters, she can cause loss of consciousness. From what I've observed, her quirk does not rely on eye contact, but has a stronger, longer lasting effect when her target is in her line of sight."

Bakugou found himself actually speechless as Deku closed the notebook and held it against his chest, bouncing on his heels in a nervous motion. Aizawa's eyes bore into Dumba**. "Midoriya here caught onto you rather easily. I wonder how many others realized what happened. I'm sure there are plenty of journalists who would absolutely love to hear about how a licensed hero and teacher sent her top ten students against just one of ours and even broke the rules to get herself involved in an attempt to win, only to be completely and utterly destroyed."

While Nurse Dumba** continued to scream and holler, Deku made his way over to where Bakugou was standing. "Hey, Kacchan, I think we should leave the rest to Aizawa-sensei. I'm sure he has everything under control, and Recovery Girl will get mad if you don't get yourself healed."

"I didn't ask for your opinion." Bakugou mumbled harshly, glaring at his feet. In all honesty, he kinda sorta _maybe_ agreed with Deku, but like h*** he was telling him that. "I wanted to spar a bit while class is still in session, anyway."

Deku only smiled, like the twerp somehow saw through him, and followed him out of the door, completely ignoring the wild screaming behind them. She didn't deserve their attention.

* * *

When class 1-A finally entered Ground Beta, most of them dropped their basic self preservation instincts in their desire to smother Bakugou in a giant group hug, but the first person that Uraraka ran to was Yano.

She sat with Rikiya off to the side, a heavy blanket around her shoulders as she held an oxygen mask against her face. Both of them were healed, but Yano's lungs were probably still kind of messed up from the smoke and Rikiya was trying to wash the blood out of his hair. Uraraka was gentle as she leaned down and wrapped her arms around the poor girl, tightening her grip as she began to cry.

The poor thing would probably be traumatized.

Bakugou somehow escaped his classmates' collective hold, storming over to where they were so that Recovery Girl could deal with his injuries, which basically came down to cuts and scratches that they didn't want getting infected.

"Um, Bakugou?" Yano spoke up, Bakugou's sharp eyes landing on her form and making her flinch. "You, uh, you were really cool, and I, um, I-... Th- Thank you for saving me."

She bowed towards him, her eyes sparkling with adoration. Bakugou looked slightly annoyed, but nodded in acknowledgment regardless.

Rikiya suddenly stood, catching everyone off guard. "I'd also like to say something."

Bakugou's expression fluidly changed from his normal scowl to an angry snarl, but Rikiya didn't flinch. "First off, I also want to thank for saving Yano's life, as well as mine. You didn't have to do that."

"I know," Bakugou spat. "But I'm going to become a hero, the _greatest_ hero, number f***ing one, and saving people kind of comes with the job. You gotta save to win, and I always win."

Rikiya bowed his head in shame, something that had Uraraka raising her eyebrows. "I see... Well, still, thank you first of all, and the other thing..."

He bowed. "I know that it probably means nothing, but I would like to apologize."

Yano looked genuinely shocked, gripping Uraraka's arm tightly as she watched the interaction unfold. Rikiya straightened back up. "I will be honest. I really do love all of my classmates very much, and I really admired Shintani. I've always wanted my classmates to be happy, so I would always defend their actions, because we were all training to be heroes. Heroes should always be in the right, right?"

"That is the most delusional bulls*** I have ever heard in my life."

Rikiya just looked sad. "I know. I got so caught up in that mindset that I actually came to believe it. And Shintani? I really did look up to him. I've always been so sheltered and he was the strongest person I knew, so I thought that _that_ was the pinnacle of heroism. But now?"

He vaguely gestured at the U.A. heroics students spreading out around Ground Beta to spar. "I guess I just never saw what real heroes in training looked like. MCH gives us blinders and just tells us, 'you're doing your best'. 'It's okay if you can't do it'. 'You'll pass anyway for participation'. 'Everybody is a winner, so don't feel bad'. Everybody always win." He looked so sad. "We've never been challenged like this. I feel like I've fallen so far behind. If this is the real status quo, then MCH doesn't stand a chance."

"F***ing transfer."

Rikiya chuckled. "I actually am thinking about it. I love my friends, but I've always been so blind to how nasty they are. I want to get into a better school, but I don't know if I will be good enough. I have so much catching up to do."

Uraraka smiled at him. "I don't know if you could realistically reach U.A.'s standard fast enough for your next year, but you can still try, and you could try for Shiketsu or Ketsubutsu, too. It's also a stretch, but you won't know unless you try."

Rikiya's eyes teared up, but he held them back, giving Uraraka a kind smile. "I guess you're right. You're all so wonderful, putting up with us." He turned back to Bakugou. "And I now have a new image of what a hero in training is _really_ suppose to look like, so thank you. Thank you very much."

With that, Rikiya waved and walked off with a couple paramedics while Yano tried to get over her shock. Bakugou, meanwhile, was hard to read, so Uraraka couldn't quite tell how he felt about the interaction. He finally let out a _tch_. "I'm gonna go get Recovery Girl to heal me so I can go spar without getting nagged about it."

"Have fun!" Uraraka called to him. He didn't respond, but Uraraka wasn't really expecting much.

"Wow..." Yano muttered to herself, coughing a bit before her smile returned.

"Yano, was it?" A voice called out, and Uraraka smiled brightly at Yaoyorozu's approaching form. "I saw what happened during the match. I do hope that you are well."

"Uh... I- uh..." she stammered nervously.

Uraraka put a hand on her shoulder. "She's okay. She's just super shy is all."

Yaoyorozu smiled. "Ah, okay."

"Yano!" Another voice rang out, this one making Uraraka's skin crawl as she shot an unkind look at the approaching Hitonari sisters. Bad hair day Hitonari looked downright nasty, an ugly scowl on her face as she came closer. Plastic Hitonari was hustling to keep up with her, despite being taller, and for some reason, she also looked upset.

"Yano, what the h***!" she yelled. "You had one job! Shintani's plan was foolproof! How could you mess that up!?"

"Um, I hate to interrupt," Yaoyorozu spoke up bravely as Yano cowered against Uraraka. "But I would recommend not yelling at her right now. She is still recovering."

"Nobody asked you, b****!" Hitonari yelled. Her glare turned to Uraraka. "Get out of here! I need to talk to my classmate!"

"Your classmate nearly _suffocated_ to death! Don't talk to her like that!" Uraraka yelled back. Yano clung to her tighter.

"Are you deaf!?" she snarled, stepping forward. "I said-!"

Plastic Hitonari stepped forward and held her arm out in front of her sister.

Both Hitonari and Yano looked as if someone had grown three extra heads as Plastic Hitonari gently pushed Hitonari back. "What do you think you're doing!?"

Plastic Hitonari simply shook her head, pointing away from them. Hitonari bristled. "Are you telling me to leave?! _Are you telling me what to do!?_"

Plastic Hitonari paused for a moment, then nodded.

"You can't do that!" Hitonari screamed. "I tell _you_ what to do! I'm the puppet master!"

"I am human."

Yano and Hitonari both startled. Plastic Hitonari's eyes shone in the sunlight. "_I am human_." she emphasized. She then pointed to herself. "Not. Puppet."

Hitonari was shaking with rage, her face turning red as she backed away. "How dare you! I am _so_ telling on you!"

Plastic Hitonari nodded, her sister fighting herself to not scream in rage as she stormed off, leaving the plastic girl behind, all by herself. She seemed confused, not entirely sure how to process what she did or what just happened, but she began to fight her face to allow a smile, her shoulders relaxing.

"Shoku..." Yano whispered in awe. Plastic Hitonari turned to look at her, eyes more alive than Uraraka's ever seen, and pointed at herself again.

"Human..."

Yano sniffled. "Yes, Shoku, yes."

'Shoku' managed a half smile as Yano patted the seat next to her. "Come sit with us."

"What's your name?" Yaoyorozu asked as 'Shoku' sat down. Yano was about to say something, but the plastic girl put a hand on her shoulder, her mouth opening and closing in her search for words.

"Hi... Hitonari... Shhhhhokuko. Hitonari Shokuko."

Yano clapped happily, clearly excited by this, while who Uraraka was now referring to as the nice Hitonari seemed rather pleased with herself.

"DEKU! HALF N' HALF!" A telltale battle cry filled the air, Bakugou reappearing after being healed and itching for a fight. Deku and Todoroki seemed to appear out of thin air. "F***ING FIGHT ME!"

"I want in on this!" Kirishima called out, running to his best friend's side for what would be a wild spar. Bakugou ran at them almost immediately, Todoroki responding with a wall of ice that was quickly destroyed.

Hitonari pointed at Bakugou with a smile on her face, looking at Yano and making the shape of a heart with her hands.

"Isn't he cool?" Yano asked with a smile of her own.

"Coooooool..."

Uraraka couldn't help the good feeling that bubbled up in her stomach at the two girls' excitement, even as Kirishima was accidentally launched into a wall by Deku, whose apology was cut off by an explosion to the face. One by one, other classmates joined in, Iida saying something about good practice with people he deeply respected while Ashido screamed something about war. Tetsutetsu jumped in a moment later, followed by Kamakiri and Kendou, while Kaminari and Tokoyami started a team up against Shiozaki and Kuroiro.

Yano's excitement was almost contagious as her eyes sparkled. "You see them, Shoku?"

Nice Hitonari nodded as Yano clenched her fists in determination. "Someday, I'm gonna be a PR manager, so that I can make a great name for great heroes like them."

"Oi, Round Face!" Bakugou suddenly yelled. "Get your puny a** over here!"

"Uraraka, help!" Deku shouted, running away from Bakugou's unrelenting explosions.

With a giddy laugh, Uraraka got up and ran after them, noticing Jirou come over to take her place next to Yaoyorozu while Yano and nice Hitonari watched in amazement. Off to the side, Rikiya was just as entranced.

And Uraraka, cutting off Bakugou's pursuit and facing his wild, animalistic grin head on, had never been more proud to be a part of this.

* * *

The MCH pr***s left as soon as heroics classes were over.

All of the girls in class 1-A ended up with Doe Eyes's and Barbie's phone numbers, while Beta apologized profusely to Deku and Kirishima for the things he said and did to them and got their contact information as well with the promise of constant updates on his progress as a hero. Bakugou honestly didn't think that Beta would get that far, but he'd also thought the same about Deku once upon a time, so what did he know?

The dorms were bustling with life that evening, everyone excited and energized by the day's events and having a 'celebration' or whatever. He didn't really care what they called it, nor was he sure why he was there in the common room with them, curled up in a blanket with Ashido practically lying on top of him after she'd scolded him for scaring the absolute s*** out of her when the building nearly collapsed. Normally, Bakugou would be annoyed, but he kinda understood, so he allowed it.

The thing that he thought was truly worth celebration was the absolute decimation of MCH's reputation, something that he was proud to say that he was a part of, and U.A. firmly putting those a**holes in their place while boosting their own rep. The thought of what the media was going to do to them and especially Nurse Dumba** in the coming days put such a genuine smile on his face that he felt ill because of it.

While his classmates took turns playing competitive video games and enjoyed the leftovers of Big Lips deserts from last night, caught up in themselves and their own happiness like normal teenagers for a change, Ashido looked up at him, a thoughtful look on her face. "What are you so happy about, Blasty?"

Bakugou just snorted. "Don't worry about it."

* * *

**Totally random note, have any of you tried cinnamon sugar toast? You toast the bread, give it a light layer of butter that melts onto it, and then you DROWN it in cinnamon sugar. My mom used to make it for me when I was little. It's so good. XD**

**Anyway, that was a fun little detour. ^^ Nothing like listening to RichaadEB's rock cover of Bakusatsuou! on youtube while writing a story like this! Actually, I listened to a lot of RichaadEB's rock covers, particularly Hartmann's Youkai Girl and The World Revolving, but his MHA covers will always hold a special place in my heart. X) You should go listen to them yourself, if you haven't. They're soooooooooooooo good. The fact that a rock cover of Bakusatsuou! even exists made my week when I saw it, honestly. **

**Scarlet Chain by xi-on and Supercharger by Sybrid music were also common choices during this process. X)**

**Anyway, that's all for now! See you all in the next one! :D PLUS ULTRA!**

**~AnonymousTwit**


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